%ristian5cience 


GIFT  or 


rSl^    Q>-^^^^I^- 


^l    APR  »9   1909  I M 

<r~-A ^ 

^knsi 


■>,' 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/faithworksofchriOOpagerich 


THE   FAITH   AND   WORKS 

OF 

CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NBW  YORK   •    BOSTON  •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA  •    SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE 

FAITH  AND  WORKS  OF 
CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 


BY 
THE  WRITER  OF  'CONFESSIO  MEDICI' 


"Then  the  devU  taketh  him  up  into  the  holy  city,  and 
setteth  him  on  a  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  and  saith  unto 
him,  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  cast  thyself  down.'* 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1909 

jtll  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1909, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  April,  1909. 

5> 


>J- 


\ 


>^----- 


J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  A;  Smith  Co, 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


-F3 


TO 

MY   DEAR   WIFE 

I    DEDICATE    A    LITTLE    BOOK 

WHICH   HARDLY  DESERVES 

TO  BE  THUS  HONOURED 


304011 


PREFACE 

In  January  1907,  the  first  of  the  Milmine  articles 
appeared   in  McClure's  Magazine.     In   1907,  also, 
were    published    Mr.    Lyman    Powell's    Christian 
Science,  the  Faith  and  its  Founder  (G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons),  and  Mark  Twain's  Christian  Science  (Harper 
and  Brothers);   and,  in  1908,  Religion  and  Medicine 
(Kegan   Paul,   Trench,  Triibner   and   Co.)  by   Dr. 
Worcester,  Dr.  MComb,  and   Dr.  Coriat.     These 
books  seem  to  show  that  in  America  the   Church 
of  Christ,  Scientist,  is  passing,  or  will  soon  pass, 
from  consolidation  to  disintegration.     By  the  death 
of  its  Founder,  who  is  now  eighty-seven  years  old, 
it  will  begin  to  be  divided  against  itself.     Here   in 
England  are  no  signs  of  disintegration,  but  all  of 
consolidation;    we  must  wait  patiently,  it  may  be 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  till  our  country  is  tired 
of  Christian  Science.     I  marvel  that  so  many  good 
people  are  kind  and  polite  to  her;  I  am  of  the  mind 
of  Cyrano  de  Bergerac :  — 

vii 


viii  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

Que  dites-vous  ?    C'est  inutile  ?    Je  le  sais. 

Mais  on  ne  se  bat  pas  dans  Tespoir  de  succes. 

Non !   non  1   c'est  bien  plus  beau  lorsque  c'est  inutile. 

In  London  there  are  sixty-four  registered  healers, 
in  Manchester  ten,  in  Brighton  nine,  and  so  on. 
Their  names,  addresses,  and  telephone  numbers,  for 
"absent  treatment,"  are  published  monthly  in  the 
Christian  Science  Journal.  They  have  all  been 
"trained  to  take  cases,"  and  have  made  formal 
declaration  that  they  use,  as  their  only  text-books, 
the  Bible  and  Mrs.  Eddy's  writings,  and  that  they 
are  not  engaged  in  any  other  profession  or  vocation 
than  healing.  The  proportion  of  men  to  women, 
among  these  healers  in  London,  is  high,  i  to  4.  It 
is  I  to  4  in  Boston,  i  to  7  in  Chicago,  i  to  8  in  Los 
Angeles.  The  Founder,  of  course,  is  not  in  practice; 
the  following  notice  is  printed,  weekly,  in  the 
Christian  Science  Sentinel,  in  very  large  type :  — 

Mrs.  eddy  TAKES    NO  PATIENTS 

The  author  of  the  Christian  Science  text-book  does  not  consult 
nor  read  letters  on  disease.  Writing  to  Mrs.  Eddy  on  proper 
subjects  is  not  prohibited.  Take  no  notice  of  startling  reports 
about  Mrs.  Eddy.  Our  Committee  on  Publication  will  be  reliable 
on  this  subject.     Beware  of  counterfeit  letters. 

The  doctrines  of  Christian  Science  are  contained 
in  Mrs.  Eddy's  writings,  especially  in  Science  and 


PREFACE  ix 

Health,  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures.  The  use  of  this 
book,  at  the  ordinary  Sunday  services,  is  threefold : 
(i)  Its  version  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  read  aloud, 
sentence  by  sentence,  with  the  Christian  version. 
(2)  Its  "Statement  of  Being"  is  read  aloud  as  a 
Creed,  the  congregation  standing.  (3)  The  "lesson- 
sermon,"  which  is  the  chief  part  of  the  service,  is 
composed  of  passages  from  the  Bible,  read  alternately 
with  passages  from  Science  and  Health;  and  the 
following  preface  is  always  recited  before  the  les- 
son-sermon :  — 

Friends,  the  Bible  and  the  Christian  Science  text-book  are  our 
only  preachers.  We  shall  now  read  scriptural  texts,  and  their 
correlative  passages  from  our  denominational  text-book:  these 
comprise  our  sermon.  The  canonical  writings,  together  with  the 
word  of  our  text-book,  corroborating  and  explaining  the  Bible 
texts  in  their  spiritual  import  and  application  to  all  ages,  past, 
present,  and  future,  constitute  a  sermon  undivorced  from  truth, 
uncontaminated  and  unfettered  by  human  hypotheses,  and  au- 
thorised by  Christ.* 

*  The  Christian  Science  Quarterly  publishes  the  Sunday  "les- 
sons" for  each  quarter.  The  subjects  for  the  Sundays  dur- 
ing July-September  1908  were  as  follows:  God,  Sacrament, 
Life,  Truth,  Love,  Spirit,  Soul,  Mind,  Christianity,  Man,  Sub- 
stance, Matter,  Reality.  The  whole  service  lasts  about  an  hour. 
Where  an  afternoon  or  evening  service  is  held,  it  is  an  exact  repe- 
tition of  the  morning  service.  No  prayers  are  said  (for  the  use 
of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  see  p.  34),  but  there  is  an  interval  for  silent 


X  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  that  we  have,  in  Science  and 
Healthy  a  sure  guide  to  the  doctrines  of  Christian 
Science;  so  far  as  any  guide  can  be  sure,  which, 
claiming  final  inspiration,  is  yet  under  frequent 
revision,  expurgation,  and  wholesale  correction. 
The  passages  which  I  have  put  together  are  mostly 
from  a  1903  edition.  Christian  Science  is  some- 
times called  Divine  Science,  or,  simply.  Science. 
That  there  may  be  no  confusion,  I  have  avoided 
the  ordinary  use  of  the  word  Science. 

I  have  arranged  the  quotations  from  Science  and 
Health,  and  from  Mrs.  Eddy's  other  writings,  in  the 
old-fashioned  form  of  articles.  It  must  be  clearly 
understood  that  the  majority  of  these  articles  have 
been  pieced  together,  and  are  not  mere  transcripts  of 
single  paragraphs,  but  patchwork  of  short  sentences. 

Dr.  Herringham,  and  Mr.  Charles  Louis  Taylor, 
have  given  me  much  kind  help  over  this  book.  I 
hope  that  the  reader  will  study  carefully  the  cases  on 
pages  152-180.  I  am  very  grateful  to  the  friends 
who  gave  them  to  me;  and  I  shall  be  glad  to  hear 
of  more  cases. 

prayer.  The  music  is  very  good,  and  so  is  the  singing.  The 
shortness  of  the  service,  the  comfort  of  the  seats,  the  admirable 
distinctness  of  the  reading,  and  the  evident  refinement  of  the 
congregation,  are  all  pleasant. 


CONTENTS 


TACM 

Preface    .••••••••        vii 

I.  Philosophy  and  Christian  Science    ...          I 

II.  The  Christian  Faith  and  Christian  Science      .        30 

III.  Life  and  Christian  Science      ....       40 

rV.  The  Reality  of  Diseases          .          •          •          ,50 

V.  The  Reality  of  Pain      .          .          •         .          .81 

VI.  Testimonies  of  Healing  .          •  •          •          •       99 

VII.  Opposing  Testimonies       .  •         •         •          .130 
VIII.  "Common-Sense"  and  Christian  Science           .      191 

IX».     Authority  and  Christian  Science    .          .          .214 
Notes 227 


Verification  of  the  quotations  from  the  writings  of  Mary  Baker 
G.  Eddy  can  readily  be  made  through  the  references,  collected  in 
Notes  at  the  end  of  the  book. 


xii 


THE   FAITH   AND   WORKS 

OF 

CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 


PHILOSOPHY   AND    CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

If  words  could  write  their  own  lives,  what  adven- 
tures they  would  be  able  to  tell,  what  hairbreadth 
escapes,  ups  and  downs  of  Fortune's  wheel,  and  ex- 
periences in  many  lands  !  There  are  words  that  have 
been  everywhere,  met  everybody,  done  everything: 
they  have  travelled  through  all  the  races  of  mankind, 
and  have  suffered  as  many  translations  as  the  body 
of  St.  Cuthbert.  Such  words,  old  and  worn  and 
full  of  memories,  are  some  of  the  most  interesting 
of  God's  creatures.  Take,  for  example,  the  word 
Being.  It  measures  its  age  in  centuries;  and  who 
is  ignorant  of  its  history .?  It  was  born  in  the  house 
of  Philosophy.  It  was,  and  is,  and  always  will  be, 
the  present  participle  of  the  verb  to  Be.  That  is  to 
say.  Being  is  being.  In  the  house  of  Philosophy,  it 
wore  the  definite  article.  All  the  servants  in  the 
house  had  to  wear  that  livery :  the  Good,  the  Beauti- 
ful, the  Bad,  all  of  them.  It  was  the  Being.  It 
left  Aristotle,  and  entered  the  service  of  the  School- 
men; of  whom,  indeed,  I  know  nothing:  and  they 
were  kind  to  it,  in  their  uncouth  way,  because  of 
their  love  of  Aristotle.     It  left  off  its  definite  article. 


2  THE   FAITH  AND  WORKS 

when  it  got  to  them:  and  they  did  not  mind,  for 
they  had  none  in  the  house.  They  employed  Latin 
words,  not  Greek:  and  there  is  no  definite  article 
in  Latin.  So  they  made  it  answer  to  the  name  of 
Ens,  from  Esse,  to  Be:  whereby  it  became  bad 
Latin  instead  of  good  Greek,  but  was  still  what  it 
had  been  all  along,  the  present  participle  of  the  verb 
to  Be.  In  the  place  of  its  definite  article,  it  wore, 
for  special  occasions,  an  adjective;  and  was  Merum 
Ens,  or  Supremum  Ens.  At  last,  it  wore  both 
article  and  adjective,  and  was  UEtre  Supreme,  the 
Supreme  Being.  It  begins  to  feel  its  age:  it  cannot 
work  now  as  it  worked  in  Athens,  more  than  two 
thousand  years  ago,  in  the  house  of  Aristotle.  It 
suffers  from  the  competition  of  younger  and  more 
pushing  words,  and  is  haunted  by  thoughts  of 
retirement  into  a  dictionary,  of  obsolescence,  and 
of  death.  Poor  word,  it  had  better  be  dead  than 
where  it  is,  in  Science  and  Health.  I  cannot  imagine 
a  worse  degradation  for  one  of  Philosophy's  oldest 
and  most  valued  servants. 

Or  take  the  word  Substance.  It,  like  Being,  was 
born  in  Philosophy,  and  took  service  with  Religion. 
It  is  the  Lying-behind,  the  Standing-under,  the 
Holding-up.  What  therefore  is  the  use  of  Christian 
Science  saying  that  there  is  no  Substance  in  Matter  ? 
Nobody  ever  said  that  there  was.  In  Matter,  there 
never  was,  nor  is,  nor  will  be,  anything  but  Matter. 
There  is  nothing  but  a  pound  of  cheese  in  a  pound 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  3 

of  cheese.     The  word  Substance  has  a  philosophical 
use,  and  a  popular  use:   and  Christian  Science  has 
confounded  them.     As  an  example  of  the  popular  use, 
we  have  what  the  "tailor  says,  when  one  is  buying  a 
garment:    /  can  recommend  this  material:  there  is 
plenty  of  substance  in  it.     That  is,  plenty  of  wool  and 
cotton,  and,  it  may  be,  plenty  of  glue:    in  brief, 
plenty  of  material.     As    an   example  of  the  philo- 
sophical use,  we  have. the  phrase,  that  Matter  is  a 
permanent   possibility   of  consciousness.     Not  that 
any  possibility,  and  least  of  all  a  permanent  possi- 
bility, is  anything  at  all,  apart  from  consciousness: 
but,  if  such  a  possibility  could  be  anything,  it  would 
be  Substance. 

Or  take  the  word  Reality,  another  of  those  me- 
dieval words  which   Christian   Science  would   call 
"  mouldering  ecclesiasticism."    What  do  we  mean  by 
Reality?     Is    anything    real;    and    if    so,    what? 
Or    is    everything    real;    and,    if   not,   why   not? 
Here,  whatever  Christian  Science  may  chance  to  say. 
Philosophy  is  definite  and  positive;   that  there  is  no 
Subject  without  Object,  nor  Object  without  Subject; 
and  that  Reality  is  neither  in  Subject  alone,  nor  in 
Object  alone,  but  in  the  Unity  of  Subject  and  Object : 
that  is  to  say,  in  the  Relation  between  them.     Re- 
lation, ultimately,  is  the  only  Reality.     Take,    as 
a   famiUar   instance   of  Absolute   Reality,   the   fact 
that  two   and   two   make   four.     Neither  the   first 
two,  nor  the  second,  are  real,  apart  from  the  fact 


4  THE   FAITH  AND  WORKS 

that  they  make  four.  Their  Relation  is  the  Reality 
of  them.  Or  take  any  common  scrap  of  matter,  say, 
this  printed  page.  The  Reality  of  the  paper  and 
the  printer's  ink  is  in  their  Relation  to  the  conscious 
reader.  It  is  he,  to  whom  the  paper  is  white,  and  the 
ink  black:  it  is  he,  in  whom  the  page  has  a  certain 
shape,  size,  texture :  it  is  in  him,  that  there  is  a  space 
between  this  line  and  the  next,  a  difference  between 
type  and  margin,  a  change  from  one  word  to  another. 
Believe  what  we  will  about  Matter,  believe  what  we 
will  about  Mind,  we  all  know  that  the  Relation  of 
Subject  and  Object,  the  Unity  of  them,  is  Reality  in 
excelsis.  Outside  Relation,  there  is  Nothing:  and, 
the  more  we  try  to  get  at  the  One,  the  more  we 
find  that  we  cannot  have  the  One  without  the  Other. 
If  we  could,  though  we  cannot,  have  the  One  without 
the  Other,  it  would  be  the  None. 

I  stay  at  this  word  Reality,  because  Christian 
Science  does  pretend  to  say  what  is,  and  what  is  not, 
real.  She  says,  for  example,  that  Evil  is  not  real. 
She  explains  this  hard  saying.  Evil  is  real  "on  our 
mortal  plane,'*  but  is  not  really  real.  Our  mortal 
plane,  therefore,  must  be,  somehow,  non-real,  not 
really  real.  But  how  can  that  be  ^.  For,  on  our 
mortal  plane,  two  and  two  make  four,  and  the  angles 
at  the  base  of  an  isosceles  triangle  are  equal :  and 
nothing  can  be  realler  than  that. 

Christian  Science  fails  to  see  that  Relation  is 
Reality.     She   explains   away   Matter   as   non-real. 


OF   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  5 

Anybody  could  do  that.  She  explains  away  Mortal 
Mind  as  non-real.  Anybody  could  do  that.  She 
cannot  explain  away  the  Relation  between  Matter 
and  Mortal  Mind.  This  Relation  is  Absolute, 
or  Eternal,  Reality.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with 
Time  and  Space,  nothing  to  do  with  Matter  apart 
from  Mortal  Mind,  or  Mortal  Mind  apart  from 
Matter. 

But  I,  whatever  may  be  the  meaning  of  that  word, 
am  not  conscious  only  of  Matter,  whatever  may  be 
the  meaning  of  that  word.  I  am  conscious  also  of 
the  Laws  of  Matter.  I  know,  for  example,  that 
water  turns  to  steam  when  it  boils,  and  to  ice  when  it 
freezes.  These  are  mathematical  facts.  The  laws 
of  temperature,  atmospheric  pressure,  density,  and  so 
on,  are  all  as  mathematical  as  mathematical  can  be; 
they  are  Absolute,  Eternal  Reality.  And,  of  course, 
they  are  in  Me.  They  are  acts  of  Mind,  they  are 
principles  of  Thought.  They  are  Mind,  they  are 
Thought.  And,  though  I  do  not  profess  to  be 
"Infinite  Mind,"  yet  I  am  quite  sure  that  "Infinite 
Mind,'*  here,  is  of  one  Mind  with  Me.  It  is  I,  who 
say  to  two  and  two.  Be  Four,  and  they  obey :  they 
would  not  be  two  and  two,  if  they  refused.  The 
more  I  try  to  think  of  my  mortal  plane  as  non-real, 
the  more  aggressively,  absolutely,  eternally,  and 
really  real  my  mortal  plane  persists  in  Being. 

For,  whether  I  consider  my  bodily  functions,  or 
look  at  the  stars  overhead,  I  cannot  get  away  from 


6  THE   FAITH  AND  WORKS 

the  Absolute  Reality  of  mathematics.  My  pulse, 
my  breath,  my  movements,  and  all  the  afferent  and 
efferent  performances  of  my  nervous  system,  display 
the  Universe.  My  blood-pressure  is  no  less  mathe- 
matical than  the  earth's  orbit:  and  both  are  real, 
being  in  Mind.  Every  fact  of  Nature,  to  be  a  fact, 
must  be  an  act  of  Consciousness.  Facts  are  the 
Unity  of  Subject  and  Object:  and  there  is  no  dif- 
ference, in  Reality,  between  the  fact  that  two  atoms 
of  hydrogen  and  one  of  oxygen  make  a  molecule  of 
water,  and  the  fact  that  two  and  two  make  four. 
Either  fact  is  Absolute  Reality.  Nay,  an  thou  It 
mouth,  ril  rant  as  well  as  thou,  says  Philosophy  to 
Christian  Science.  Philosophy  does  not  see  why 
she  should  have  all  the  big  words  and  all  the  capital 
letters,  before  she  has  learned  this  elementary  rule, 
that  Reality  is  not  Identity,  but  Unity.  Neither 
Subject  without  Object  is  real,  nor  Object  without 
Subject.  What  is  real,  is  the  Unity  of  Subject  and 
Object. 

This  rule  of  Philosophy  comes,  of  course,  into 
Religion.  It  occurs,  for  example,  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity.  It  animates  commonplace  faith.  In- 
finite Mind  must  have  something  to  mind :  Infinite 
Power  must  have  something  to  do :  Infinite  Wisdom 
must  have  something  to  say :  Infinite  Love  must  have 
something  to  love.  Therefore,  we,  and  our  bodies, 
and  our  senses,  though  they  play  us  a  thousand 
tricks,  are  all  real;   and  so  are  the  tricks.     All  that 


OF  CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE  7 

we  have,  are,  or  feel,  is  real ;  for  it  is  all  in  Relation, 
that  is  to  say,  in  Reality.  Take  a  very  simple 
instance;  the  toothache  is  real,  because  it  is  realized, 
as  an  object.  In  the  language  of  religion,  God  is, 
therefore  the  toothache  is.  But  Christian  Science 
would  put  it  thus:  God  is,  therefore  the  toothache 
is  not.  She  forgets  that  Reality  is  not  Identity, 
but  Unity.  She  worships  the  One :  but  she  who  wor- 
ships the  One,  worships  the  None.  Consider  the 
following  articles,  imagined,  by  Christian  Science, 
to  be  of  a  philosophical  nature.* 

Of  God 

The  allness  of  Deity  is  His  oneness.^  God  is  the  Principle  of 
divine  Metaphysics.^  The  fundamental  propositions  of  divine 
Metaphysics  are  summarised  in  the  four  following,  to  me,  self- 
evident  propositions.  Even  if  reversed,  these  propositions  will 
be  found  to  agree  in  statement  and  proof,  showing  mathematically 
their  exact  relation  to  truth.  De  Quincey  says  mathematics  has 
not  a  leg  to  stand  upon  which  is  not  purely  metaphysical. 

1.  God  is  All-in-all. 

2.  God  is  good.     Good  is  Mind. 

3.  God,  Spirit,  being  all,  nothing  is  matter. 

4.  Life,  God,  omnipotent  good,  deny  death,  evil,  sin,  disease. 

Disease,  sin,  evil,  death,  deny  good,  omnipotent  God,  Life. 
.  ,  .    The  divine  Metaphysics  of  Christian  Science,  like  the 
method  in  mathematics,  proves  the  rule  by  inversion.      For  ex- 
ample: there  is  no  pain  in  Truth,  and  no  truth  in  pain;  no  nerve 
in  Mind,  and  no  mind  in  nerve;  no  matter  in  Mind,  and  no  mind 

*  See  the  Notes  to  this  chapter  for  the  sources  of  the  passages 
quoted. 


8  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

in  matter;  no  matter  in  Life,  and  no  life  in  matter;  no  matter  in 
Good,  and  no  good  in  matter.^ 

Of  Substance 

Spirit  —  the  synonym  of  Mind,  Soul,  or  God  —  is  substance; 
that  is,  the  only  real  substance.*  The  earth's  orbit,  and  the  imag- 
inary line  called  the  Equator,  are  not  substance.  ,  .  .  Divest 
yourself  of  the  thought  that  there  can  be  substance  in  matter.^ 

Of  Spirit  or  Soul 

In  Christian  Science,  Spirit,  as  a  proper  noun,  is  the  name  of 
the  Supreme  Being.  It  means  quantity  and  quality,  and  applies 
exclusively  to  God.® 

Here  let  us  try  to  see  where  we  are.  To  clear 
the  way,  let  us  get  rid  of  three  or  four  statements 
which  state  nothing.  Good  is  Mind.  The  earth's 
orbit  is  not  Substance.  Life,  Truth,  and  Love  are 
Trinity  in  Unity.  Spirit  means  quantity  and  quality. 
These  phrases  have  no  meaning:  there  is  none  for 
them  to  have.  Neither  is  there  any  meaning  in  the 
words,  God  is  All-in-all.  The  only  All  is  All.  As 
for  the  statement  that  the  allness  of  Deity  is  His 
oneness,  it  illustrates  the  fact  that  Christian  Science 
worships  the  None.  The  oneness  of  Deity,  if  Deity 
had  oneness,  would  be  His  noneness.  As  for  her 
statement  that  Mind  occupies  Space,  it  does  not: 
Matter,  not  Mind,  occupies  Space.  She  is  quite 
right,  where  she  says  that  mathematics  are  meta- 
physical :  I  have  just  said  so  myself.  But  I  never 
said,  nor  did  De  Quincey,  that  the  reversal  of  a 


OF   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  9 

string  of  words  is  mathematics,  or  proves  anything. 
For  example,  Reverence,  Humility,  Logic,  deny 
Christian  Science,  Theosophy,  Esoteric  Buddfiism. 
Esoteric  Buddhism,  Theosophy,  Christian  Science, 
deny  Logic,  Humility,  Reverence.  Again,  there  is 
no  pain  in  mathematics,  and  no  mathematics  in 
pain:  no  paving-stones  in  Mind,  and  no  mind  in 
paving-stones :  no  matter  in  Death,  and  no  death  in 
matter:  no  matter  in  Evil,  and  no  evil  in  matter. 
Indeed,  we  are  not  getting  on,  at  this  rate.  Let  us 
try  again.  God  being  all,  nothing  is  matter.  Why  ? 
Surely,  if  God  be  all,  there  is  nothing  that  is  not  God. 
There  is  no  substance  in  matter.  Of  course  there  is 
not.  Then  being  will  be  recognised  as  spiritual,  and 
death  will  be  obsolete.  But  why  should  Death,  on 
that  account,  be  obsolete  .?  And  what  is  the  use  of 
saying  that  Life  denies  Disease,  whereas  Disease  is 
the  direct  and  immediate  act  of  Life .?  And,  when 
Christian  Science  says  that  there  is  no  substance  in 
matter,  what  does  she  mean  by  is,  and  what  does  she 
mean  by  in  ?  Substance  and  Matter  are  easy 
words :  but  Is  and  In  are  two  of  the  hardest  words 
that  ever  were  invented.  God  is  All-in-all.  What 
does  she  mean  by  is  ?  In  what  sense  is  He  the  ob- 
jects round  me  as  I  sit  writing  here  ^.  I  do  most 
firmly  believe  that  "we  see  all  things  in  God."  I  am 
quite  sure  that  I  could  not  otherwise  tell  the  differ- 
ence between  my  pen  and  my  inkpot.  The  very 
words,  objects  round  me,  express  Absolute  Reality. 


10  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

Nothing  is  more  real  than  the  Unity  of  Subject  and 
Object:  and,  when  I  say  pen,  I  am  in  this  Unity. 
My  pen  is  real,  because  it  is  not  I :  and  I  am  real, 
because  I  am  not  my  pen.  It  and  I  are  real  in  Unity, 
real  in  God.  Christian  Science  is  under  the  delusion 
that  my  pen,  somehow,  is  not  real,  because  all  the 
Reality  is  used  up  by  God.  Whereas,  if  He  were  not, 
my  pen  would  not  be,  nor  I  either.  It  and  I  are  in 
Him.  What  could  be  more  really  real  than  that  ? 
No  wonder  that  Christian  Science  evades,  with 
happy  laughter,  heart-searching  words  like  Is  and 
In. 

Of  Evil 

Evil  has  no  reality.  It  is  neither  person,  place,  nor  thing,  but 
is  simply  a  belief,  an  illusion  of  material  sense.^  God,  good, 
being  ever  present,  it  follows  in  divine  logic  that  evil,  the  supposi- 
tional opposite  of  good,  is  never  present.® 

Here  Christian  Science  throws  to  the  winds  all 
that  she  has  just  said.  A  moment  ago,  she  exiled 
God  out  of  our  lives  into  Absolute  Reality:  now, 
she  wants  Him  back.  I  must  ask  her  once  more 
to  face  this  Eternal  and  Infinite  and  Ever-present 
Truth,  that  two  and  two  make  four.  This  divine 
fact  is  Absolute  Reality.  It  is  so  absolutely  real, 
that  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  Good  and  Evil. 
There  is  comfort,  for  all  of  us,  in  mathematics, 
more  comfort  than  we  can  see  at  first  sight.  The 
propositions  of  Euclid,  and  the  multiplication  table, 
seem   so  far   from   any   kind   of  religious   fervour. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  ii 

Yet,  as  surely  as  the  heavens  are  telling  the  glory 
of  God,  and  the  firmament  showing  His  handiwork, 
so  two  and  two,  making  four,  and  the  angles  at 
the  base  of  an  isosceles  triangle,  being  equal,  are 
eloquent  of  Him.  They  tell  us,  that  Absolute 
Reality  is  neither  Good  nor  Evil.  That  sounds  a 
lame  conclusion.  But  what  more  do  we  want  ? 
What  business  have  we,  with  our  pin-point  selves, 
and  our  lives  hardly  visible  under  a  microscope, 
to  drag  Absolute  Reality  down  into  the  practical 
affairs  of  a  world  that  we  do  not  fully  understand, 
nor  ever  will  ?  Absolute  Reality  is  mathematical, 
not  ethical.  We  know  that  Good  and  Evil  are 
labels  for  our  experiences;  which  are  so  small  that 
they  have  to  be  labelled,  or  we  should  be  sure  to 
leave  them  behind.  Somehow,  there  is  a  reason,  as 
for  Good,  so  for  Evil.  In  this  world,  our  one  chance 
is  neither  to  reason  about  them,  nor  to  try  to  reconcile 
them,  but  to  believe  in  both  of  them. 

Of  Sin 

Sin,  sickness,  and  death  are  comprised  in  human  material  belief, 
and  belong  not  to  the  divine  Mind.  They  are  without  a  real  origin 
or  existence.  They  have  neither  Principle  nor  permanence,  but 
belong,  with  all  that  is  material  and  temporal,  to  the  nothingness 
of  error,  which  simulates  the  creations  of  Truth.® 

Here  we  see  why  Christian  Science  was  in  such 
a  hurry  to  explain  away  Evil.  She  had  to  explain 
away  Evil,  that  she  might  be  free  to  explain  away 


12  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

Sin.  In  April  of  last  year,  a  leading  Christian 
Scientist,  at  an  Albert  Hall  meeting,  said,  "The 
fact  (is)  revealed,  in  Christian  Science,  that  God  is 
sinless,  that  sin  therefore  has  no  Divine  authority, 
and  consequently  no  real  power,  that  it  has  no 
intelligence  or  mind,  no  natural  being  or  existence 
in  God,  that  it  has  no  law,  no  influence,  no  attrac- 
tiveness, no  presence  or  manifestation,  no  power 
of  suggestion  or  thought,  that  it  is  no  part  of  God, 
and  therefore  no  part  of  man."  You  can  see  and 
hear  him,  as  you  read,  playing  off",  by  the  use  of 
this  long  string  of  dull  negatives  the  fact  of  God 
against  the  fact  of  sin.  That  is  what  comes  of 
deifying  man  at  God's  expense.  Another  Christian 
Scientist  has  tried,  by  the  use  of  positives  mixed 
with  negatives,  to  present  a  recognisable  picture  of 
sin,  without  openly  breaking  with  Christian  Science. 
"Sin  has  no  place  in  the  eternal  realm  of  Infinite 
Truth  where  all  is  pure  and  holy.  Therefore, 
Christian  Science  places  it  on  the  human  plane. 
On  this  plane  it  is  real.  So  real  that  the  Bible  was 
sent  to  awaken  the  world,"  etc.  But  what  right 
has  he  to  say  that  in  the  eternal  realm  of  Infinite 
Truth  all  is  pure  and  holy .?  Two  and  two  are 
there,  eternally  making  four;  an  occupation  which 
is  neither  pure  nor  holy.  There,  also,  are  the 
mathematics  of  chemistry,  including  the  action  of 
absinthe  on  the  drunkard's  brain:  and  the  mathe- 
matics of  the  movement  of  solid  bodies,  including 


OF   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  13 

the  behaviour  of  a  volcano  and  the  shock  of  railway 
trains  in  collision.  The  wreckage  of  drunkards, 
mountain-sides,  and  passengers  is  neither  pure  nor 
holy:  still,  these  disasters  do  inhabit  Eternity,  and 
are  represented,  somehow,  in  the  eternal  realm  of 
Infinite  Truth.  It  is  but  a  poor  compliment  to 
God,  to  refer  Evil  and  Sin  to  **our  mortal  plane." 
If  God  were  not.  Evil  and  Sin  would  not  be  on  our 
mortal  plane:  for  there  would  not  be  any  mortal 
plane,  where  they  could  be.  Now  comes  the 
question.  If  God  be  All-in-all,  and  Sin  be  "native 
nothingness,"  what  is  Man  ? 

Of  Man 
Man  is  spiritual  and  perfect.  .  .  .  Man  is  the  idea  of  divine 
Principle.  He  is  the  compound  idea  of  God,  including  all  right 
ideas;  the  generic  term  for  all  that  reflects  God's  image  and 
likeness.  .  .  .  Man  is  incapable  of  sin,  sickness,  and  death,  inas- 
much as  he  derives  his  essence  from  God,  and  possesses  not  a  single 
original,  or  underived,  power.^°  God  is  the  Principle  of  man,  and 
man  is  the  idea  of  God.^^ 

Here  Christian  Science  is  trying  to  state  the 
Platonic  doctrine  of  Ideas.  But  the  Idea  of  Man, 
the  Type,  is  "laid  up  in  Heaven,"  as  Plato  said  of 
the  Idea  of  the  State.  The  Idea  of  Man  is  not  Man. 
This  Idea,  Type,  Form,  or  Pattern  reflects  nothing, 
possesses  nothing,  includes  nothing,  and  is  conscious 
of  nothing.  See  into  what  difficulty  Christian 
Science  has  got,  with  her  vague  use  of  words.  She 
says  that  we  are,   in  Reality,  not  men,  but  Arche- 


14  THE  FAITH   AND  WORKS 

typal  Man.  In  place  of  men,  she  puts  the  Platonic 
Idea  of  Man:  with  this  result,  that  her  Platonic 
Idea  of  Man  is  just  her  idea  of  men,  and  she  has 
on  her  hands  all  that  men  call  Man,  all  that  we  call 
Us.  What  is  her  next  move  ?  Wonderful  woman, 
she  is  not  at  a  loss:  she  ties  up,  in  one  very  large 
bundle,  all  that  we  call  Us,  and  names  it  Mortal 
Mind, 

Of  Mortal  Mind 

Mortal  mind  Is  not  an  entity .^^  As  Mind  is  immortal,  the  phrase 
mortal  mind  impHes  something  untrue  and  therefore  unreal;  and, 
as  the  phrase  is  used  in  teaching  Christian  Science,  it  is  meant  to 
designate  something  which  has  no  real  existence.  Indeed,  if  a 
better  word  or  phrase  could  be  suggested,  it  would  be  used.^ 

Scientific  Translation  of  Mortal  Mind 
First  Degree:   Depravity 
Physical.     Evil  beliefs,  passions  and  appe- 
tites,   fear,    depraved   will,    pride,    envy.    Unreality. 
deceit,    hatred,    revenge,    sin,    sickness, 
disease,  death. 

Second  Degree:  Evil  beliefs  disappearing 

Moral.     Humanity,  honesty,  affection,  com-    Transitional 
passion,  hope,  faith,  meekness,  temper-    Qualities. 
ance. 

Third  Degree:  Understanding 

Spiritual.    Wisdom,  purity,  spiritual  under- 
standing,   spiritual   power,   love,   health.    Reality. 
holiness. 
In  the  third  degree  mortal  mind  disappears;  and  man  as  God's 
image  appears." 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  15 

Did  anybody  ever  hear  the  like  of  that  ?  Was 
there  ever  such  a  lot  of  words  without  a  meaning  ? 
Here  is  something,  which  is  nothing,  yet  is  every- 
thing, from  unreaHty  up  to  reality :  at  which  point, 
just  as  it  begins  to  be  interesting,  it  disappears. 
It  is  all  the  works  of  the  devil,  and  all  the  fruits 
of  the  Spirit.  It  is  "not  an  entity"  :  therefore, 
honesty,  which  is  one  of  its  many  transitional 
qualities,  is  "not  an  entity."  Even  Christian 
Science  fails  to  define  Mortal  Mind.  It  is  every- 
body who  is  not  a  Christian  Scientist.  It  is  all  that 
she  left  out,  when  she  was  making  a  God  of  Man. 

But  what  can  we  expect  of  her,  once  we  have 
caught  her  using  the  dreadful  word  Entity?  This 
mouldy  old  word,  born  and  bred  in  Scholastic  logic, 
is  derived  from  Ens,  and  must  be  taken  to  mean 
the  quality  of  Being,  or.  What  it  feels  like,  to  Be. 
Thus,  there  is  Identity,  which  means.  What  it  feels 
like,  to  he  the  same ;  and  there  is  Nonentity,  which 
means.  What  it  feels  like,  not  to  he.  But  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  an  entity.  Therefore  when  Christian 
Science  says  that  "Mind  is  not  an  entity  within  the 
cranium,"  ^^  we  must  answer  (i)  Within  refers  to 
Space,  and  Mind  is  not  in  Space;  (2)  Entity  refers 
to  Quality,  and  Mind  is  not  Quality;  (3)  it  is 
nonsense  to  talk  of  an  Entity. 

Thus  far,  we  have  learned  from  Christian  Science 
that  Mind  is  All,  and  that  Mortal  Mind  is  all  that 
Mind  which   Mind   is   not.     Holding  tight  to   this 


i6  THE   FAITH  AND  WORKS 

clear  doctrine,  let  us  contemplate  the  Universe  in 
terms  of  Mind. 

Of  Matter 

Science  shows  that  what  is  termed  matter  is  but  the  subjective 
state  of  what  is  herein  termed  mortal  mind}^  The  verity  of  Mind 
shows  conclusively  how  it  is  that  matter  seemeth  to  be,  but  is  not. 
Divine  Science,  rising  above  physical  theories,  resolves  things 
into  thoughts^  and  replaces  the  objects  of  material  sense  with 
spiritual  ideas.^^  Matter  and  mortal  mind  are  but  different  strata 
of  human  belief.  The  grosser  substratum  is  named  matter.  The 
more  ethereal  is  called  human,  or  mortal  mind,  and  is  the  illusion 
that  is  called  mind  in  matter.^^ 

Here  Christian  Science  puts  in  very  odd  language 
a  very  old  thought,  which  was  popularised  by 
Berkeley.  And,  of  course,  Berkeley  is  perfectly 
delightful.  No  writer  more  quickly  brings  the 
sense  of  wonder  into  the  life  of  the  average  man. 
/  see  the  sun,  which  shines,  and  the  grass,  which  looks 
green.  These  words,  my  brethren,  were  spoken  by 
Sister  Anne,  looking  out  from  the  walls  of  Blue- 
beard's castle :  but,  oh,  consider  that  the  grass  is 
not  green,  unless  we  are  gazing  on  it;  nor  is  the 
sun  bright,  nor  warm,  unless  we  are  conscious  of 
it;  nor  did  Sister  Anne's  voice  make  any  sound, 
save  to  her  and  Fatima.  I  could  preach  a  thousand 
sermons,  all  as  good  as  that,  out  of  Berkeley.  But 
what  would  he  have  said  to  Christian  Science's 
account  of  Man,  and  of  Mortal  Mind  .?  His  teach- 
ing is  plain  enough :  that  our  sensations  are  a  great 


OF   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  17 

mystery,  and  the  visible  world  is  a  sort  of  message, 
or  "divine  language."  And  he  says  it  all,  as  any- 
body of  his  admirable  temperament  would  say  it, 
in  the  very  simplest  words.  If  Man  be  eternal, 
away  goes  Berkeley.  If  Mind  be  All,  away  goes 
Berkeley.  It  is  just  because  we  are  really  here, 
that  the  material  world  is  really  there;  that  is  what 
he  says.  I  cannot  think  of  any  philosopher  who 
would  have  laughed  more  heartily  over  Science 
and  Health, 

Of  "Material  Knowledge  Illusive" 

Knowledge  gained  from  matter,  and  through  the  five  senses,  is 
only  temporal,  —  the  conception  of  mortal  mind,  the  offspring  of 
sense,  not  of  Soul,  Spirit,  —  and  symbolizes  all  that  is  evil  and 
perishable.  Natural  science,  as  it  is  commonly  called,  is  not  really 
natural  or  scientific,  because  it  is  deduced  from  the  evidence  of  the 
physical  senses.^® 

But  the  laws  of  matter  are  just  as  metaphysical 
as  the  laws  of  mathematics :  for  they  are  the  same 
laws.  As  two  and  two,  making  four,  are  Absolute 
Reality,  so  gravitation,  and  atomic  action,  and  all 
such  facts,  are  Absolute  Reality.  It  is  in  the  eternal 
realm  of  Infinite  Truth,  where  all  is  pure  and  holy, 
that  lumps  of  sugar  melt  in  cups  of  tea,  and  safety- 
matches  strike  only  on  the  box.  That  is  why  we 
call  Nature  the  work  of  God :  because  the  laws  of 
Nature  are  applied  mathematics,  "eternal  in  the 
heavens."     As  for  this  talk  about  temporal  know- 


i8  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

ledge,  and  knowledge  gained  from  matter,  it  is  not 
serious.  To  gain  knowledge,  there  must  be  the 
knowing  Mind.  To  deduce  evidence,  there  must 
be  the  deducing  Mind,  which  hears  all  the  senses, 
and  unites  and  arranges  their  evidence,  and  is  itself 
none  of  them,  nor  all  of  them.  No  knowledge  is 
gained  from  matter;  and  all  knowledge  is  eternal. 
The  "so-called  laws  of  matter"  are  not  "false 
beliefs  in  the  presence  of  intelligence  and  life  where 
Mind  is  not."  ^^      They  are  Intelligence,  are  Mind. 

Of  "Human  Reproduction"  and  "Formation  from 
Thought" 

From  mortal  mind  comes  the  reproduction  of  the  species, — 
first,  the  belief  of  inanimate,  and  then  of  animate  matter.  Accord- 
ing to  mortal  thought,  the  development  of  embryonic  mortal  mind 
commences  in  the  lower,  basal  portion  of  the  brain,  and  goes  on 
in  an  ascending  scale  by  evolution,  keeping  always  in  the  direct 
line  of  matter,  for  matter  is  the  subjective  condition  of  mortal  mind. 
Next  we  have  the  formation  of  so-called  embryonic  mortal  mind, 
afterwards  mortal  man  or  mortals.  All  this  while,  matter  is  a  be- 
lief, ignorant  of  itself,  ignorant  of  what  it  is  supposed  to  produce.^* 
Ossification  ...  is  as  directly  the  action  of  mortal  mind  as  de- 
mentia or  insanity.  Bones  have  only  the  substance  of  thought 
which  formed  them.  They  are  only  phenomena  of  the  mind  of 
mortals.  The  so-called  substance  of  bone  is  formed  first  by  the 
parent's  mind,  through  self-division.  Soon  the  child  becomes  a 
separate,  individualised,  mortal  mind  that  takes  possession  of  itself 
and  its  own  thoughts  of  bones.^^ 

Here  we  must  be  patient,  or  we  shall  despair. 
Mortal  mind,  we  are  told,  is  something  which  has 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  19 

no  real  existence.  Out  of  it  comes  reproduction. 
Mortal  mind  is  not  an  entity,  yet  it  is  at  one  time 
embryonic.  This  once  embryonic  non-entity  is  situ- 
ated, according  to  itself,  in  the  basal  portion  of 
an  illusion,  which  is  its  own  subjective  condition. 
Here,  it  is  developed.  Next,  it  is  formed.  All  this 
while,  the  illusion  is  a  belief,  which,  like  all  beliefs, 
is  ignorant  of  itself:   and  its  action  is  ossification. 

But  why  should  we  trouble  over  this  blend  of  a 
very  little  physiology  and  psychology  with  a  great 
quantity  of  home-made  neo-Platonism  that  has 
gone  bad?  What  are  "phenomena  of  the  mind"  ? 
How  can  a  mind  be  "  self-divided "  ?  How  can  a 
child  "become"  a  mind.?  If  it  can,  why  should 
not  a  fiddle  become  a  tune,  or  a  ham-sandwich 
become  a  sense  of  repletion  ? 

Patience,  I  say.  There  are  two  words,  anyhow, 
which  mean  something:  Insanity,  and  Ossification. 
Christian  Science  professes  to  cure  insanity :  and,  in 
due  time,  we  shall  come  to  that  part  of  her  works. 
And  she  does  believe  that,  when  we  are  all  Christian 
Scientists,  and  have  arrived  at  a  full  understanding 
of  Being,  women  will  conceive  and  bear  children  by 
a  purely  mental  process.  They  will  think  babies 
into  existence,  mind-begotten  mind-babies.  She 
says  that  it  will  be  possible,  some  day,  "to  abolish 
marriage,  and  maintain  morality  and  generation."  ^^ 
And  again:  "Proportionately  as  human  generation 
ceases,  the  unbroken  links  of  eternal  harmonious 


20  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

being  will  be  spiritually  discerned;  and  man  not  of 
the  earth  earthly  but  coexistent  with  God  will 
appear."  ^^  In  1875  she  said:  "Spirit  instead  of 
matter  will  be  made  the  basis  of  generation."  ^^ 
In  1 88 1  she  said:  "The  time  cometh  when  there 
will  be  no  marrying  or  giving  in  marriage.  Soul 
will  ultimately  claim  its  own,  and  the  voice  of  per- 
sonal sense  be  hushed."  ^^  In  1888  she  hinted  that 
marriage  will  come  to  an  end,  when  people  have 
learned  that  "generation  rests  on  no  sexual  basis."  ^^ 
In  1898  she  said:  "The  propagation  of  their  species 
by  butterfly,  bee,  and  moth,  without  the  customary 
presence  of  male  companions,  is  a  discovery  cor- 
roborative of  Science  of  Mind."  ^^  In  1903  she  drew 
back  an  inch  or  two,  and  said:  "I  never  knew  but 
one  individual  who  believed  in  agamogenesis;  and 
that  one  had  a  lovely  character,  was  suffering  from 
incipient  insanity,  and  Christian  Science  cured  her. 
I  have  named  her  case  to  individuals,  when  casting 
my  bread  upon  the  waters.  .  .  .  The  perpetuation 
of  the  floral  species  by  bud  or  cell-division  is  evident, 
but  I  discredit  the  belief  that  agamogenesis  applies 
to  the  human  species."  But,  four  lines  lower 
down,  came  the  statement,  "Proportionately  as 
human  generation,"  etc. :  and  then,  this  crowning 
sentence,  "Mortals  can  never  understand  God's 
creation,  while  believing  that  man  is  a  creator."  *  ^® 

*  For  a  full  and  clear  account  of  Christian  Science  on  Mar- 
riage, see  Mr.  Lyman  Powell's  book,  Christian  Science^  the  Faith 
and  its  Founder  (G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons),  Chapter  VIII. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  21 

She  does  indeed  look  forward  to  a  time  when  a  man 
and  a  woman,  by  mere  agreement  as  to  the  unreality 
of  matter,  will  have  mind-babies:  and,  I  suppose, 
will  determine  their  ** gender"  by  mutual  consent. 
That  is  why  she  is  so  keen,  here,  over  this  question 
of  ossification.  We  shall  return  to  it  when  we 
come  to  her  views  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation. 
Meanwhile,  she  is  like  the  dog  in  the  fable,  that 
tried  to  seize  the  shadowy  bone  in  the  water,  and 
thereby  dropped  the  real  bone.  She  is  trying  to 
get  hold  of  the  Platonic  Idea  of  Bone,  the  Bone-as- 
it-is-in-itself.  But  that  Absolute  Bone  belongs  to 
the  Absolute  Baby,  the  Baby-as-it-is-in-itself:  it 
will  never  belong  to  a  human  baby.  On  our  mortal 
plane,  human  bones  belong  to  human  babies.  To 
belong  is  to  be  related;  and  Relation  is  Reality. 
Therefore,  they  are  real  bones,  belonging  to  real 
babies.  Moreover,  the  bones  of  a  baby,  and  the 
"gender"  of  a  baby,  are  in  the  structure  of  that 
baby :  they  are  under  the  laws  of  structure,  which 
are  the  laws  of  Nature,  which  are  mathematical  laws, 
which  are  Eternal  Truth.  Moreover,  the  baby's 
bones  are  real,  because  they  play  Object  to  the  baby's 
Subject :  and  the  baby's  possession  of  its  own  thoughts 
of  hones  is  that  magnificent  Reality,  the  Unity  of 
Subject  and  Object.  Have  it  any  way  you  like, 
bones  in  babies  are  as  real  as  the  fact  that  two  and 
two  maLe  four.  The  more  you  interpret  bones  as 
thoughts,  the  more,  not  the  less,  real  is  every  bone 


22  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

here  on  this  earth,  even  the  bones  which  do  not 
belong  to  anybody. 

Of  the  Brain 

The  belief  that  a  pulpy  substance  under  the  skull  is  Mind,  is 
a  mockery  of  intelligence,  the  mimicry  of  Mind.^^  To  be  on  com- 
municable terms  with  Spirit,  persons  must  be  free  from  organic 
bodies.^^ 

The  old  antagonism,  between  the  materialist 
interpretation  of  consciousness  and  the  transcen- 
dentalist,  has  mostly  been  upheld  by  combatants 
who  thought  hard,  and  used  words  with  some  regard 
for  their  meanings.  Christian  Science  has  got  hold 
of  the  words,  but  not  of  the  meanings :  witness 
this  phrase.  To  he  on  communicable  terms  with  Spirit, 
persons  must  he  free  from  organic  hodies.  Why } 
Am  I  not  free  from  my  organic  body,  if  it  be  not  I, 
but  mine?  She  says  that  I  am  a  "person";  that  I 
have,  not  am,  a  body.  It  follows,  that  I  must  use 
my  organic  body,  as  one  uses  a  telephone.  If  I  play 
the  fool  with  it.  Spirit  will  not  be  able  to  get  through 
to  me.  My  one  hope  of  being  on  communicable 
terms  with  Spirit,  to  say  nothing  of  good  terms,  is, 
to  keep  my  brain  in  working  order.  This  brain, 
that  she  calls  "pulpy  substance,"  this  miracle  of  a 
thousand  million  miracles,  every  cell  of  it  a  miracle, 
this  divine  fabric,  if  it  be  not  I,  but  mine,  and  I 
own  and  work  these  innumerable  miracles  —  why, 
that  is  enough  for  me. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  23 

Of  other  Parts  of  the  Body 

Of  the  Muscles.  Because  the  muscles  of  the  blacksmith's  arm 
are  strongly  developed,  it  does  not  follow  that  exercise  has  pro- 
duced this  result.  The  trip-hammer  is  not  increased  in  size  by 
exercise.  Why  not,  since  muscles  are  as  material  as  wood  and 
iron  ?  Because  nobody  believes  that  mind  is  producing  that  result 
on  the  hammer.  .  .  .  Not  because  of  muscular  exercise,  but  by 
reason  of  the  blacksmith's  faith  in  it,  his  arm  becomes  stronger.^ 

Of  the  Heart.  The  valves  of  the  heart,  opening  and  closing 
for  the  passage  of  the  blood,  obey  the  mandate  of  mortal  mind 
as  directly  as  does  the  hand,  moved  evidently  by  the  will.^  Mortal 
mind  forms  all  conditions  of  the  mortal  body,  and  controls  the 
stomach,  bones,  lungs,  heart,  and  blood,  as  directly  as  the  volition  or 
will  moves  the  hand.^ 

Under  the  spreading  chestnut  tree  the  village 
blacksmith  stands :  the  muscles  of  his  brawny  arm 
are  well  developed,  because  mortal  mind  attributes 
their  development  to  exercise.  In  reality  there  is 
no  mortal  mind.  The  trip-hammer  would  be  larger 
after  a  job,  if  only  we  all  thought  so.  But  take  a 
heart  obstructed  by  valvular  disease,  or  a  portion  of 
bowel,  or  any  other  hollow  muscular  organ  of  the 
body,  obstructed.  In  such  cases,  you  get  the 
same  increase  of  muscular  development,  the  same 
"hypertrophy"  that  you  get  in  the  blacksmith's  arm. 
But,  in  these  cases  of  compensatory  hypertrophy, 
mortal  mind  had  no  idea  what  was  happening:  it 
was  as  ignorant  as  the  trip-hammer.  Again,  in 
what  sense  can  we  say  that  mortal  mind  moves  the 
heart  ?     For,  of  course,  the  foetal  heart  is  beating 


24  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

months  before  the  child  "becomes  a  mortal  mind." 
Christian  Science  would  say  that  the  foetal  heart  beats 
because  the  mother  is  thinking  of  it.  But  it  goes 
on  beating,  though  she  be  asleep,  or  drunk,  or 
insane.  And  in  what  sense  can  we  say  that  mortal 
mind  "controls  the  blood"  .f^  For  instance,  after 
the  ligature  of  a  large  artery,  the  tissues  formerly 
supplied  by  that  artery  are  supplied  by  the  collateral 
circulation:  a  new  system,  a  new  course  of  the 
blood,  is  established  for  that  purpose,  unknown  to 
the  patient.  Is  that  collateral  circulation  created  by 
his  thought .?  Or  by  the  general  opinion  of  the 
medical  profession  ? 

Of  Life 

Life  is  eternal.  We  should  find  this  out,  and  begin  the  demon- 
stration thereof.^  It  has  been  demonstrated  to  me  that  life  is 
God.3« 

Christian  Science  is  very  fond  of  these  three  words, 
God  is  Life.  I  have  tried  hard,  but  cannot  see  any 
meaning  in  them :  no,  not  even  when  she  says  them 
backward,  "showing  mathematically  their  exact  re- 
lation to  Truth."  Life  is  divine  Mind.  Life  is 
God,  as  the  Scriptures  imply.  I  know,  of  course, 
that,  if  God  were  not,  there  would  be  no  Life :  nor 
Death  either.  There  would  be  nothing  to  live,  and 
nothing  to  die.  But  Christian  Science,  saying  that 
Life  is  divine  Mind,^^  is  playing  on  the  word  Life, 
using  it  in  a  sense  which  turns  it  into  nonsense.     For, 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  25 

if  God  be  Life,  and  God  be  All-in-all,  it  follows, 
that  paving-stones  have  Life.  It  follows,  also,  that 
Death  has  Life.  She  keeps  jumping  from  neo- 
Platonism  to  Animalism,  and  back. 

Of  "Possibilities  of  Life" 

The  less  mind  there  is  manifested  in  matter,  the  better.  When 
the  unthinking  lobster  loses  his  claw,  it  grows  again.  If  the  Science 
of  Life  were  understood,  it  would  be  found  that  the  senses  of  Mind 
are  never  lost,  and  that  matter  has  no  sensation.  Then  the  human 
limb  would  be  replaced  as  readily  as  the  lobster's  claw,  not  with 
an  artificial  limb,  but  with  the  genuine  one.^ 

If  God  be  Life,  it  follows,  that  the  unthinking 
lobster  is  nearer  than  the  Christian  Scientist  to  God. 
Somewhere  in  the  future,  as  we  shall  have  mind- 
babies,  so  we  shall  have  mind-arms  and  mind-legs, 
after  the  loss  of  their  illusory  predecessors.  A 
horrible  picture,  of  a  world  full  of  Christian  Scien- 
tists, all  with  bodies  purely  mental.  If  God  be 
All-in-all,  how  can  a  blighted  bud  be,  as  she  says,^® 
unnatural  ?  First,  the  bud  was  all  right :  then  came 
a  cold  night,  and  it  was  blighted.  On  March  31st, 
let  us  say,  it  was  in  the  eternal  realm  of  Infinite 
Truth,  where  all  is  pure  and  holy.  On  April  ist, 
it  was  a  falsity  of  sense,  a  changing  deflection  of 
mortal  mind.  Christian  Science  is  confounding 
the  Platonic  Idea,  the  Archetypal  Bud,  with  real 
buds.  The  Bud-as-it-is-in-itself  never  gets  blighted, 
for  this  reason,  that  it  never  gets  born.     Buds  that 


26  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

get  born,  real  buds  on  real  trees,  do,  some  of  them, 
get  blighted,  in  the  course  of  their  life :  and  Life, 
she  says,  is  God. 

Here  let  us  halt,  for  we  have  come  a  long  way. 
We  can  see,  through  all  the  many  pages  of  Science 
and  Health,  somebody  trying  hard  to  put  in  words 
a  state  of  mind  which  is  beyond  words.  Rags  of 
Plato  and  of  Aristotle,  of  the  Schoolmen,  of  Spinoza, 
Berkeley,  and  the  Evangelists,  dance  in  her  mind; 
and  she  writes  it  all  down,  like  a  planchette.  She  is 
bewitched  by  words,  and  lies  at  the  mercy  of  capital 
letters.  Science  and  Health  is  214,000  words  long, 
and  such  words.  Corporeality,  ontology,  theogony, 
chemicalisation,  entity,  dematerialisation,  mentality, 
brainology,  actuality,  supposititious  consciousness, 
noumenon,  the  Ego-God,  equipollence,  inharmonies, 
somethingness,  allness,  oneness  —  see  Christian 
Science  caught  in  her  own  toils,  in  the  love  of  long 
words.     Consider,  for  example,  her 

Scientific  Ultimatum 

God  is  Mindy  and  God  is  all;  hence  all  is  Mind.  On  this  state- 
ment rests  the  Science  of  being;  and  its  Principle  is  divine,  demon- 
strating harmony  and  immortaHty.*** 

She  desires  the  One.  But  would  she  be  content 
to  believe  in  Supremum  Ens  ?  It  is  neither  Good 
nor  Evil,  neither  God  nor  Man,  neither  Life  nor 
Death;  it  makes  Nothing,  does  Nothing.  It  is 
not  even  the  One,  unless  there  be  the  Other.     It  is 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  27 

the  present  participle  of  the  verb  to  Be.  This  will 
never  do :  she  must  have  some  warmer  Reality  than 
Supremum  Ens.  Think  how  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  Retro- 
spection and  Introspection,  describes  her  discovery  of 
Christian  Science :  — 

The  moment  arrived  of  the  heart's  bridal  to  more  spiritual 
existence.  When  the  door  opened,  I  was  waiting  and  watching; 
and  lo!  the  bridegroom  came.  My  heart  knew  its  Redeemer. 
Soulless  famine  had  fled.*^  Blanched  was  the  cheek  of  pride. 
My  heart  bent  low  before  the  omnipotence  of  Spirit,  and  a  rint 
of  humility,  soft  as  the  heart  of  a  moonbeam,  mantled  the  earth. 
Bethlehem  and  Bethany,  Gethsemane  and  Calvary,  spoke  to  my 
chastened  sense  as  by  the  tearful  lips  of  a  babe.  Frozen  fountains 
were  unsealed.  Erudite  systems  of  philosophy  and  religion  melted, 
for  Love  unveiled  the  healing  promise  and  potency  of  a  present 
spiritual  afflatus.^ 

Here,  in  her  autobiography,  we  have  the  true 
Mrs.  Eddy.  Other  hands  have  been  at  work  on 
Science  and  Health;  but  here  is  Mrs.  Eddy  alone. 
And  what  could  be  less  like  "the  bridegroom"  than 
Supremum  Ens  ? 

No  wonder  that  erudite  systems  of  philosophy 
and  religion  melt  at  the  coming  of  Christian  Science. 
It  is  less  trouble  to  melt  than  to  argue  with  her. 
They  dislike  having  to  move;  they  had  got  fond  of 
the  place :  but,  once  the  tone  of  the  neighbourhood 
begins  to  go  down,  what  is  the  good  of  stopping  ? 
Let  us  melt,  right  away,  and  have  done  with  it,  they 
say  to  each  other,  or  she  will  call  on  us,  and  then  we 


28  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

shall  have  to  ask  her  to  dinner :  and  she  does  behave  in 
such  an  odd  way,  and  says  such  horrid  things  about 
other  people.  They  depart,  these  dear  old  philoso- 
phies and  religions,  and  leave  the  world  to  darkness 
and  to  her.  God  being  Ally  matter  is  Nothing:  here 
is  a  darkness  that  may  be  felt.  Groping  in  it,  I 
found  the  Psalmist,  still  asking,  What  is  man,  that 
Thou  art  mindful  of  him?  Well,  says  Christian 
Science,  man  is  a  Platonic  Idea.  If  we  protest,  and 
say  that  we  are  not,  and  that  we  ought  to  know,  she 
calls  us  Mortal  Mind.  With  Mind,  Man,  Mortal 
Mind,  and  Matter,  which  is  Mortal  Mind  rubbed 
through  a  sieve,  her  Universe  is,  practically,  com- 
plete. A  fine  day,  a  smooth  sea,  a  healthy  baby,  a 
clear  skin,  are  manifestations  of  Supreme  Being, 
harmonies  from  the  Infinite,  smiles  from  the  Father. 
A  storm,  a  sea  that  makes  one  sick,  a  baby  in  a  fit, 
a  rash,  are  unnatural  deflections,  illusions  of  mortal 
mentality,  absences  of  God.  It  follows,  that  her 
God,  the  Supreme  Being  of  Christian  Science,  is 
the  God  of  Being  Supremely  Comfortable.  Now, 
for  the  overwhelming  collision  with  the  Christian 
Faith.  Why  is  this  collision  inevitable .?  Because 
she  must  work  miracles,  reduce  dislocations,  repair 
diseased  bones,  stop  fevers,  and  remove  tumours. 
Till  she  has  got  at  Christ,  she  cannot  work 
miracles. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  29 

Note 

I  have  tried  to  put  in  plain  words  the  contrast 
between  Philosophy  and  Christian  Science.  Only, 
to  do  that,  I  had  to  be  silent  over  the  fact  that  she  is 
incessantly  contradicting  herself.  What  she  affirms, 
she  presently  denies.  Let  alone  the  innumerable 
changes  and  expurgations  made  in  successive  editions 
of  Science  and  Health,  there  is  any  amount  of  con- 
tradictions in  one  and  the  same  edition.  A  long  list 
of  them  is  given  by  the  Dean  of  Norwich,  in  his 
very  useful  book,  Christian  Science,  contrasted  with 
Christian  Faith,  and  with  Itself  (London,  Society  for 
Promoting  Christian  Knowledge,   1903). 


30  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 


II 


THE  CHRISTIAN  FAITH  AND  CHRISTIAN 
SCIENCE 

A  FEW  references  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  Science  and 
Health  and  one  or  two  to  her  other  writings  will 
suggest  the  relations  of  Christian  Science  to  the 
Christian  Faith. 

The  theory  of  three  persons  in  one  God,  the  idea 
of  a  personal  Trinity,  suggests  to  her  polytheism.^ 

"The  true  Logos  is  demonstrably  Christian 
Science."  ^ 

Her  "scientific  explanation"  of  the  atonement 
is  that  "suffering  is  an  error  of  sinful  sense  which 
Truth  destroys,  and  that  eventually  both  sin  and 
suffering  will  fall  at  the  feet  of  everlasting  Love."  * 

Of  the  Incarnation  she  says :  — 

"Those  instructed  in  Christian  Science  have  reached  the  glo- 
rious perception  that  God  is  the  only  author  of  man.  The  Virgin- 
mother  conceived  this  idea  of  God,  and  gave  to  her  ideal  the  name 
of  Jesus.  The  illumination  of  Mary's  spiritual  sense  put  to  silence 
material  law  and  its  order  of  generation,  and  brought  forth  her 
child  by  the  revelation  of  Truth,  demonstrating  God  as  the  Father 
of  men."* 

She  declares  that  it  was  Jesus'  understanding 
of  this  divine  Science  —  "that  the  Ego  was  Mind 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  31 

instead  of  body,  —  that  matter,  sin,  and  evil  were 
not  Mind"  ^  which  brought  upon  him  the  anathemas 
of  his  age.  Of  his  disciples  she  remarks  that  only 
eleven  left  a  "desirable"  historical  record.^ 

Of  his  miracles  she  would  have  us  believe  that 
Jesus  restored  Lazarus  by  understanding  that  he 
had  never  died.  "Had  Jesus  believed  that  Lazarus 
had  lived  or  died  in  his  body,  he  would  have  stood 
on  the  same  plane  of  belief  with  those  who  buried 
the  body,  and  he  could  not  therefore  have  resuscitated 
it."  When  men  are  awakened  from  the  belief  that 
all  must  die,  they  can  restore  by  spiritual  power 
those  who  thought  they  had  died  —  but  not  till 
then.*^ 

Of  the  Resurrection  we  are  told  that  in  the  three 
days  after  the  crucifixion 

"Jesus  met  and  mastered,  on  the  basis  of  Christian  Science, 
namely,  the  power  of  Mind  over  matter,  all  the  claims  of  medicine, 
surgery,  and  hygiene.  He  took  no  drugs  to  allay  inflammation. 
He  depended  not  upon  food  or  pure  air  to  resuscitate  wasted  ener- 
gies. He  required  not  the  skill  of  a  surgeon  to  heal  the  torn  palms, 
and  bind  up  the  wounded  side  and  lacerated  feet.  ...  It  was  a 
method  of  surgery  beyond  material  art,  but  it  was  not  a  super- 
natural act."* 

Of  the  promise  in  the  words  of  St.  John,  "He 
shall  give  you  another  Comforter,  that  he  may  abide 
with  you  forever  "  we  are  told:  "This  Comforter 
I  understand  to  be  Divine  Science."* 

Also,  we  learn,  from  Science  and  Healthy  that  the 


32  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

Millennium  will  come,  when  Christian  Science  shall 
have  made  her  enemies  her  footstool.  Nature  will 
be  a  series  of  mental  processes.  Things  will  be 
resolved,  by  the  opinion  of  the  majority,  into 
thoughts:  and  the  world  will  be  made  of  Platonic 
Ideas.  The  Day  of  Judgment,  dies  ircB  dies  ilia, 
will  be  an  extension  of  the  Millennium.  The 
Universe  will  come  to  an  end,  for  we  shall  pro- 
nounce it  an  illusion.  In  Christian  Science,  we 
shall  unanimously  think  the  Universe  down,  vote 
it  away,  unmask  its  native  nothingness,  expose  its 
non-reality,  and  agree  that  it  is  not  there.  We 
shall  decline  to  recognise  Matter.  Thereupon,  the 
earth  will  pass  away,  and  the  heavens,  and  there  will 
be  no  more  sea.  Mind,  at  last,  will  come  in  glory, 
to  judge  the  quick  —  there  will  be  no  dead — that 
Mind,  which  is  in  Christian  Science;  and  will 
reign,  eternally,  over  Nothing. 

Also,  we  have  what  Mrs.  Eddy  says  concerning 
herself:  — 

No  person  can  take  the  individual  place  of  the  Virgin  Mary. 
No  person  can  compass  or  fulfil  the  individual  mission  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth.  No  person  can  take  the  place  of  the  author  of 
SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH,  the  discoverer  and  founder  of  Chris- 
tian Science.  .  .  .  The  second  appearing  of  Jesus  is  unquestion- 
ably the  spiritual  advent  of  the  advancing  idea  of  God  as  in 
Christian  Science. ^'^ 

God  hath  thrust  in  the  sickle,  and  he  is  separating  the  tares  from 
the  wheat.  This  hour  is  molten  in  the  furnace  of  Soul.  Its  har- 
vest  song   is   world-vi^ide,   world-known,   world-great.  .  .  .     Let 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  33 

error  rage  and  imagine  a  vain  thing.  Mary  Baker  Eddy  is  not 
dead.  .  .  .  Those  words  of  our  dear,  departing  Saviour,  breathing 
love  for  his  enemies,  fill  my  heart:  "Father,  forgive  them;  for 
they  know  not  what  they  do."  ^ 

But  we  need  not  stay  over  the  divine  honours 
claimed  or  accepted  or  not  refused  by  the  Founder 
of  Christian  Science.  There  is  an  admirable  account 
of  them  in  Mr.  Lyman  Powell's  book.  What 
concerns  us  is  the  parody,  by  Christian  Science, 
of  the  Christian  Faith.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
orthodoxy;  it  is  a  question  of  decency.  I  learn 
from  Mr.  Lyman  Powell,  that  Christian  Science, 
when  she  talks  of  the  "  dual  personality"  ^^  of  Christ,* 
is  reviving  the  Nestorian  heresy :  and  I  do  not  need 
his  learning  to  see  that  her  version  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  Incarnation  is  new  and  feminine.  I  note,  in 
passing,  that  she  is  the  Word,  also  the  Comforter, 
also  the  Second  Advent,  and  the  Last  Day;  and 
that  she  frequently  receives  honourable  mention  in 
the  Apocalypse.  I  note,  also,  that  she  does  not  fa- 
vour "audible  prayer,''  ^^  or  the  use  of  prayers  for  the 
sick  ^*:  and  that  she,  who  has  endlessly  revised  and 
expurgated,  without  sense,  without  conscience,  her 

*  "With  the  personality  of  Jesus  Christ  divided  into  a  mere 
man  called  Jesus,  who  was  not  always  wise,  and  never  had  as 
high  a  revelation  as  Mrs.  Eddy's,  and  a  mere  idea  called  Christ, 
who  reappears  to-day  in  Christian  Science  and  no  other  faith, 
Mrs.  Eddy  shows  a  certain  familiarity  in  dealing  with  the  Incar- 
nation which  is  disquieting  even  to  the  unconventional."  —  Lyman 
Powell,  work  cited. 


34  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

Divine  Revelation,  says  that  we,  who  are  not  her 
disciples,  worship  "a  corporeal  Jehovah."  ^^  Let 
all  that,  and  much  else,  go.  Nothing  will  ever 
stop  Christian  Science  from  disgracing  herself  in 
public.  But  I  do  wonder  that  she  did  not  keep  her 
hands  oflF  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Lord's  Supper. 
Every  Sunday,  in  every  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist, 
her  version  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  read  aloud, 
sentence  by  sentence,  with  that  version  which  we 
owe  to  the  mistaken  views  entertained,  by  Jesus, 
of  Deity.  The  audience,  with  one  of  the  readers, 
recites  the  Christian  version:  and  the  other  reader 
recites  the  version  which  Mrs.  Eddy  understands 
"to  be  the  spiritual  sense  of  the   Lord's   prayer "X 

Our  Father  which  art  in  Heaven. 

Our  Father-Mother  God,  all-harmonious. 

Hallowed  be  Thy  name. 

Adorable  One. 

Thy  Kingdom  come. 

Thy  Kingdom  is  within  us.  Thou  art  ever-present. 

Thy  will  be  done  on  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

Enable  us  to  know  —  as  in  heaven,  so  on  earth  —  God  is  supreme. 

Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread; 

Give  us  grace  for  to-day;  feed  the  famished  affections; 

And  forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  forgive  our  debtors. 

And  infinite  Love  is  reflected  in  love. 

And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil; 

And  Love  leadeth  us  not  into  temptation,  but  delivereth  us  from 
sin,  disease,  and  death. 

For  Thine  is  the  Kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory, 
forever. 

For  God  is  now  and  forever  all  Life,  Truth,  and  Love,^^ 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  35 

The  alternating  sentences  produce  a  well-marked, 
almost  physical,  nausea,  as  if  one  had  got  suddenly 
into  foul  air.  The  difficulty  is  to  sit  still;  to  resist 
the  longing  to  get  away,  out  into  the  street,  the  sound 
of  traffic,  the  sight  of  the  sky.  But  I  am  not  sure 
which  is  the  worse,  her  parody  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
or  her  parody  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

Obeying  his  precious  precepts  —  following  his  demonstration, 
so  far  as  we  apprehend  it  —  we  drink  of  his  cup,  partake  of  his 
bread,*  are  baptized  with  his  purity.  .  .  .  The  true  sense  is  spirit- 
ually lost,  if  the  sacrament  is  confined  to  the  use  of  bread  and 
wine.  .  .  .  The  Passover,  which  Jesus  ate  with  his  disciples,  .  .  . 
was  a  mournful  occasion,  a  sad  supper,  taken  at  the  close  of  day, 
—  in  the  twilight  of  a  glorious  career,  with  shadows  fast  falling 
around;  and  this  supper  closed  forever  Jesus*  ritualism,  or  con- 
cessions to  matter.  What  a  contrast  between  our  Lord's  last 
supper,  and  his  last  spiritual  breakfast  with  his  disciples  in  the 
bright  morning  hours,  at  the  joyful  meeting  on  the  shore  of  the 
Galilean  Sea !  This  spiritual  meeting  with  our  Lord,  in  the  dawn 
of  a  new  light,  is  the  morning  meal  which  Christian  Scientists 
commemorate." 

Probably  it  is  the  latter.  I  should  have  thought 
that  every  decent  man  or  woman  would  stop  short  of 
insulting  that  Sacrament.  This  do  in  remembrance 
of  Me.  No,  says  Christian  Science,  let  us  do  some- 
thing else.  He  took  bread,  and  brake  it.  Never  mind 
that,  says  she :  it  was  His  last  concession  to  Matter. 
This  is  My  blood.  Then  she  is  offended.  Blood, 
pain,  death,  are  illusions  of  mortal  mind  :  away  with 

*  S.  &  H.  Ed.,  1903,  his  bread.     Ed.  1898,  his  immortality. 


36  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

them.  I  should  have  thought  that  the  doctrine  of 
the  Presence  in  the  Lord's  Supper  would  have 
pleased  even  her :  it  represents  all  that  she  might  be 
worshipping  to-day,  if  she  had  not  lost  her  head. 
And  why  is  it  that  she  will  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  Lord's  Supper.?  Because  it  was  "a  mournful 
occasion."  Here,  at  last,  we  are  at  the  heart  of 
Christian  Science.  Anything  to  be  comfortable, 
to  be  able  to  forget  sin,  disease,  and  death.  "The 
less  said  or  thought  of  them,  the  better."  ^^  That 
is  her  desperate  advice.  It  was  not  wise  of  Jesus 
to  think  of  death.  He  may  even  have  hastened  or 
caused  His  death,  by  talking  so  much  about  it.  / 
lay  down  My  life  for  the  sheep.  How  unwise,  to 
think  like  that:  it  was  enough  to  kill  anybody. 
/,  if  I  he  lifted  up  —  why,  He  might  have  avoided 
the  cross,  and  lived  to  a  good  old  age,  if  only  He  had 
set  His  mind  that  way.  Here,  in  this  unwholesome 
terror  and  loathing  of  pain  and  of  death,  you  see 
Christian  Science,  at  last,  naked.  We  are  not  to 
think  of  death :  we  are  to  deny  pain.  Crucifixus, 
passus,  et  sepultus  est.  We  are  not  to  talk  or  think 
of  passus.  The  scientific  explanation  of  the  Passion 
is,  that  suffering  is  an  error  of  sinful  sense  which 
Truth  destroys.  The  Agony  in  the  Garden,  the 
Scourging,  the  torture  of  the  Crucifixion,  were  errors 
of  His  sinful  sense.  They  did  not  hurt  much.  He 
was  thinking  of  something  else,  all  the  time.^*  They 
did  not,  in  Reality,  hurt.     Let  us  forget  these  dismal 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  37 

occasions,  and  have  a  Last  Breakfast,  without  any 
elements,  and  no  Cross,  and  no  Passion,  and  all 
Resurrection.  We  like  the  Resurrection:  we  feel 
that  we  could,  with  a  little  more  understanding,  do 
it  ourselves.  This  "Communion-service"  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  Scientist,  is  held  once  or  twice 
a  year.  It  is  nothing  more  than  silent  prayer.  It 
is  the  one  meeting  at  which  the  audience  kneel.  A 
Christian  Scientist  tells  me  that  it  is  "not  a  special 
service,  only  something  extra."  It  has  just  been 
abolished  from  the  great  Boston  Church  of  Christ, 
Scientist.  It  was  only  once  a  year :  and  the  crowd 
was  inconvenient.  So  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  June  1908, 
issued  the  following  order :  — 

The  house  of  the  Mother  Church  seats  only  5000  people: 
and  its  membership  includes  48,000  communicants:  hence  the 
following  —  The  branch-churches  continue  their  Communion- 
seasons,  but  there  shall  be  no  more  Communion-season  in  the 
Mother  Church  that  has  blossomed  into  spiritual  beauty.  Com- 
munion universal  and  divine.  "For  who  hath  known  the  mind 
of  the  Lord,  that  he  may  instruct  him  ?  But  we  have  the  mind 
of  Christ." 

In  contrast  with  this  order,  we  have  what  Mr. 
Chesterton  says  of  Christian  Science :  — 

"The  cultivated  people  of  our  time  will  generally  tend  to  say 
of  Christian  Science  that  it  is  a  grand  and  pure  philosophy  preached, 
perhaps,  by  unbalanced  or  unpleasant  people.  But  I,  for  one, 
should  say  exactly  the  opposite.  I  say  that  Christian  Science  is 
a  mean  and  disgusting  philosophy,  preached  by  people  who  are 
quite  nice.     They  are  all  right;   it  is  only  their  creed  that  comes 


38  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

from  hell.  The  doctrine  that  pain  and  death  are  not  real  at  all, 
except  in  so  far  as  their  victims  are  cowardly  enough  to  submit  to 
them,  is  a  diabolical  doctrine,  obviously  calculated  to  produce  all 
the  purely  diabolical  qualities,  such  as  intellectual  cruelty  and  con- 
tempt for  the  weak.  .  .  .  Christ  came  on  earth  to  smash  the  man 
who  felt  himself  strong.  And  He  did,  in  the  most  effective  and 
final  manner,  smash  the  man  who  felt  himself  strong;  for  He 
opposed  to  him  the  God  who  felt  Himself  weak.  Human  beings 
henceforward  were  not  to  be  humiliated  by  the  limitations  of  pain 
and  death;  for  Deity  itself  has  admitted  them.  Christian  Science 
says  that  pain  is  not  a  reality.  Christianity  says  that  pain  is  so 
great  a  reality  that  even  the  Creator  could  feel  it.  Christian  Science 
says  that  a  man  need  not  think  of  death  at  all.  Christianity  says 
that  even  God  thought  of  it  with  awe.  Marred  by  a  million  other 
mistakes,  betrayed  and  tortured  through  the  agony  of  eighteen 
centuries,  Christianity  has  never  lost  its  strongest  and  most  dis- 
tinctive note,  the  physical  note;  the  talk  of  the  body  and  the  blood. 
Even  since  the  Crucifixion  a  certain  actuality,  and,  therefore,  a 
certain  sanctity,  has  clung  round  the  hard  pain  of  prosaic  men." 
—  G.  K.  Chesterton,  Daily  News,  April  ii,  1908. 

The  crest,  on  my  copy  of  Science  and  Health,  is 
a  very  large  and  earthly  crown,  such  as  the  kings 
wear  in  a  pack  of  cards.  Stuck  inside  this  crown, 
and  fallen  sideways,  is  a  very  small  cross,  about 
one-tenth  the  size  of  the  crown.  There  must  be  a 
"spiritual  interpretation"  of  this  tumbling-down  of 
the  little  cross.  Rays  of  glory  proceed  on  all  sides 
from  the  crown,  but  none  from  the  cross.  The 
motto  round  this  crest  is,  "Heal  the  sick,  raise 
the  dead,  cleanse  the  lepers,  cast  out  demons."  It 
ought  to  be,   "Heal  the  sick,   cleanse  the  lepers, 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  39 

raise  the  dead,  cast  out  devils."  Christian  Science 
does  not  believe  in  angels  or  in  devils.  But  that 
is  no  reason  why  she  should  say  demons.  Crest  and 
motto,  between  them,  proclaim  the  vulgarity  of 
Christian  Science,  and  her  contempt  or  hatred  of  the 
Christian  Faith.  She  had  better  have  this  motto  — 
**  If  thou  be  the  son  of  God,  come  down  from  the 
cross."  For  she  was  there,  when  it  all  happened : 
she  was  in  the  crowd,  saying  then  what  she  says 
now.  It  is  her  final  offer  —  "If  he  be  the  King  of 
Israel,  let  him  now  come  down  from  the  cross,  and 
we  will  believe  him." 


40  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 


III 

LIFE  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

It  is  one  of  the  most  frequent  sayings  of  Christian 
Science,  and  one  of  the  most  false,  that  God  is  Life. 
Here  are  two  words  of  so  great  difficulty  that  a 
shelf  of  books  might  be  written  about  them.  What 
does  she  mean  by  Life .?  Is  it  right,  or  wrong,  to 
say  that  Life  is  Lives  ? 

We  speak  at  one  time  of  the  lives  of  animals;  at 
another,  of  animal  life.  We  say,  of  some  accident, 
that  many  lives  were  lost,  or  that  there  was  a  great 
loss  of  life.  In  common  talk,  we  assume  that  lives 
are  life.  But  would  Christian  Science  admit  that 
Life  is  Lives  ?  If  she  would,  it  follows,  that  God  is 
Lives;  a  very  grotesque  phrase.  If  she  would  not, 
what  does  she  mean  by  Life  ?  Truly,  she  has  not 
given  herself  any  trouble  over  this  question,  whether 
life  be  lives.  She  was  in  such  a  hurry  to  get  away 
from  Death,  that  she  did  not  stop  to  define  Life. 
Besides,  it  is  not  her  way  to  assign  particular  mean- 
ings to  her  words.  Yet  I  think  that  she  means, 
nine  times  out  of  ten,  by  Life,  herself;  her  in- 
tellectual pursuits,  her  works  of  healing.  That 
is  not  the  usual  meaning  of  the  word  Life. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  41 

If  God  be  Life,  it  follows  that  He  is  the  cause 
of  every  infective  disease :  because  the  germs,  which 
are  the  disease,  have  Life.  That  is  why  the  diseases 
are  infective,  because  the  germs  are  alive.  If  they 
were  not  alive,  there  would  be  no  cholera,  plague, 
malaria,  typhoid  fever,  and  so  forth.  But,  for  the 
present,  let  us  neglect  these  lower  forms  of  life,  and 
consider  the  higher  animals,  and  them  alone.  What 
has  she  to  say  about  them  ?  In  Science  and  Health, 
she  gives  us  a  long  chapter  on  Creation.  From  end 
to  end  of  it,  not  one  word  is  said  of  any  creature 
but  Man;  except  for  a  chance  phrase  or  two,  such 
as  this  —  "You  may  rise  to  the  spiritual  conscious- 
ness of  being,  even  as  the  bird  which  has  burst  from 
the  egg,  and  preens  its  wings  for  a  skyward  flight"  ^ 

—  there  is  no  hint  of  plant,  or  tree,  or  fish,  or  fowl, 
or  brute,  nothing  to  show  that  we  are  not  the  only 
creatures  of  God.  Which  way  is  a  man  to  look, 
when  he  finds  three  of  the  six  Days  of  Creation  left 
out  .^  Except  for  a  few  pointless  allusions  —  the 
unthinking  lobster,  the  ferocious  beast,  illustrations 
that  are  like  the  pictures  in  a  baby's  alphabet-book 

—  Science  and  Health,  for  all  its  214,000  words, 
gives  us,  practically,  a  world  that  has  no  animals  in 
it.  "Father-Mother  is  the  name  for  Deity,  which 
indicates  His  tender  relationship  to  His  spiritual 
creation."  ^  What  name  shall  indicate  His  relation- 
ship to  His  brute  creation  .? 

I  was  told,  by  a  Christian  Scientist,  that  animals 


42  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

are  the  lesser  ideas  of  God.  It  sounds  Platonic :  but 
I  do  not  remember  that  Plato  calls  one  Idea  less 
than  another.  Besides,  I  am  not  thinking  of  the 
Idea,  the  Type,  of  Dog,  Horse,  or  Cat.  I  am 
thinking  of  dogs,  horses,  and  cats.  Here  is  my 
dog,  as  I  write,  on  the  hearth-rug.  What,  "in 
Reality,"  is  he  ? 

God,  Man,  Mortal  Mind,  Matter  —  my  dog  is 
none  of  them.  What  then  is  he  ?  For  he  really  is. 
I  cannot  doubt  that  he  is  he,  is  real,  is  here,  on  the 
hearth-rug. 

If  animals  were  not  real.  Christian  Science  would 
not  treat  them.  It  may  be  news  to  the  reader,  that 
her  followers  treat  animals.  But  I  was  told,  bj  a 
practitioner  — 

We  have  many,  many  cases  of  the  cure  of  animals.  I  have 
treated  several  animals.  There  was  a  gentleman,  not  long  ago, 
who  had  three  goldfinches  sent  up  from  the  country,  three  such 
beautiful  birds :  and  two  of  them  had  passed  on,  from  the  change 
of  air  and  food,  I  suppose:  and  we  were  afraid  the  third  was 
going  to  pass  on.  But  I  treated  it;  and,  after  a  day  or  two,  the 
bird  was  perfectly  well,  and  began  to  sing.  And  there  was  a 
pigeon:  it  was  ill,  its  eyes  had  begun  to  turn,  and  it  was  quite 
rough:  you  know  how  pigeons  look  when  they  are  beginning  to 
die:  and  I  treated  it,  and  it  recovered.  Dogs  are  very  good  for 
treatment:  they  are  very  responsive.  The  people  I  Hve  with, 
have  fowls :  and  one  day  the  gentleman  said  to  me,  'Tm  just  going 
to  kill  one  of  the  new  fowls :  it  is  eating  its  own  eggs.*  And  I 
said,  *Oh,  don't  kill  it:  it  is  such  a  beautiful  bird.'  So  we  put  it 
in  a  separate  partition ;  and  I  treated  it.  I  realised  God's  idea  — 
that  it  could  not  be  God's  idea,  that  the  bird  should  eat  its  own 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  43 

eggs.  You  see,  It  was  something  like  what  sin  is  in  us.  A  few 
days  later,  it  laid  an  egg,  and  didn't  eat  it.  Then  it  laid  two  more, 
and  didn't  eat  them.  Then  we  put  it  back  with  the  other  fowls: 
and  they  lay  about  an  egg  each  every  day;  and  not  one  of  the  eggs 
is  so  much  as  pecked.  Oh,  we  treat  everything.  I  know  a  gentle- 
man who  treated  a  rat  in  his  farmyard :  and  now  the  rat  is  playing 
about  with  the  chickens. 

Another  Scientist  told  me  the  same;  that  believers 
often  treat  their  own  animals.*     I  asked,  "  Do  they 

*  Compare  also  the  Christian  Science  Journal,  September  1897. 
"I  am  always  glad  to  hear  of  animals  being  helped.  I  find  they 
respond  very  quickly  to  Truth.  A  white  Pekin  duck,  unable  to 
take  a  step,  was  given  two  treatments,  when  it  was  cured.  My 
sister  said  she  never  knew  one  to  get  well  before  with  such  a  claim.** 
Then  follows  the  story  of  the  healing  of  a  colt.  At  eleven  o'clock, 
the  colt  was  declared  by  the  same  sister  to  be  "ruined."  In  the 
afternoon,  after  treatment,  he  was  all  right,  he  was  up,  walking 
around.  The  Daily  Telegraph,  August  31,  1907,  quotes  a  story, 
from  a  Christian  Science  publication,  of  a  little  girl  who  read 
Science  and  Health  to  a  lame  sparrow,  till  it  flew  away.  And  I 
have  before  me,  as  I  write,  a  press-cutting  —  "From  our  own 
correspondent.  New  York.  An  elephant  at  the  Zoo  here,  called 
Mad  Tom,  has  been  ill  several  weeks.  To-day,  a  couple  of 
Christian  Scientists  called,  and  asked  permission  to  attempt  the 
cure  of  Tom  by  absent  treatment.  Permission  was  readily  granted, 
and,  strangely  enough,  the  animal  seems  to  be  better  to-night  than 
he  has  been  for  a  long  time."  Indeed,  Christian  Scientists  draw 
the  line  nowhere.  Miss  Feilding  gives  a  long  account  of  a  Lon- 
don lady,  who,  when  the  curtains  of  a  mantel-shelf  caught  fire, 
treated  them  by  thought,  while  somebody  else  quenched  them 
with  wet  cloths  (Faith-healing  and  Christian  Science,  p.  190). 
And  Mr.  Lyman  Powell  records  a  story  of  the  treatment  of  that 
irresponsive  vegetable,  an  india-rubber  plant. 


44  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

treat  flowers  ?  For  flowers,  also,  are,  in  a  sense, 
alive."  The  answer  was,  "Of  course  you  could, 
if  you  wished.  Of  course,  it  could  be  done.  God 
is  the  life  of  the  whole  world.  If  anybody  had  a 
favourite  plant,  for  instance,  it  could  be  done.  You 
can  do  anything.'' 

St.  Francis,  doubtless,  prayed  over  sick  animals. 
But  Christian  Science  is  not  in  favour  of  prayers  for 
the  sick.  But  the  point  is,  that  animals  must  be 
real,  to  be  treated.  She  cannot  treat  them,  unless 
they  are  there.  They  cannot  be  "responsive,"  if 
they  are  not  real. 

The  mystery  of  this  reality  of  their  inner  life  is 
far  and  away  the  most  impenetrable  of  all  mysteries. 
What  is  an  animal  ?  What  does  it  feel  like,  to  be 
an  animal  ?  I  am  thinking  of  the  nobler  animals, 
such  as  we  call  not  it,  but  him  or  her,  I  call  my 
dog  him,  not  because  he  is  a  male,  but  because  he  is 
a  dog;  as  people  call  me  him,  not  because  I  am 
a  male,  but  because  I  am  a  man.  My  dog  is  "con- 
scious." As  we  live  and  feel,  so  he  lives  and  feels. 
What  has  Christian  Science  to  say  of  his  pleasures 
and  his  pains  ? 

Let  us  take  it,  that  they  are  illusions  of  canine 
mind.  That  is  a  thoroughly  Scientist  phrase.  A 
biscuit,  which  my  dog  supposes  to  be  a  biscuit,  is 
really  matter,  which  is  the  subjective  state  of  what  is 
herein  termed  canine  mind.  It  follows  that,  as  mor- 
tal mind  is  to  Man,  so  is  canine  mind  to  Dog.     If 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  45 

Man  be  "spiritual,  eternal,  perfect,  the  compound 
idea  of  God,  the  conscious  identity  of  being,  that 
which  has  not  a  single  quality  underived  from 
Deity,"  why,  so  is  Dog.  That  is  all  very  well:  it 
is  easy  to  say  that  the  Platonic  Idea,  the  Dog-as-he 
is-in-himself,  is  somehow  "laid  up  in  Heaven." 
But  how  is  Christian  Science  to  get  from  Dog,  with 
a  capital  letter,  to  my  dog,  with  a  small  letter .? 
The  breakdown  is  equally  disastrous,  from  Man  to 
men,  and  from  Dog  to  dogs.  The  "lesser  ideas  of 
God"  are  Horse,  Dog,  and  Cat,  not  horses,  dogs, 
and  cats. 

It  is  said  that  a  certain  architect,  building  some 
rooms  over  an  archway,  left  out  the  staircase.  That 
is  what  Christian  Science  has  done :  she  has  left  out 
the  staircase  of  the  House  of  Life. 

For  each  one  of  us,  there  are  millions  of  the 
lower  creatures  of  God.  Ages  before  we  came  here, 
they  suffered  and  died.  All  over  the  earth,  we  en- 
slave, punish,  mutilate,*  kill,  and  eat  animals :  live 
by  their  death,  and  are  made  comfortable  by  their 

*  "In  the  months  of  spring  and  early  summer,  in  this  country, 
farm-places  simply,  so  to  speak,  seethe  with  vivisection:  male 
and  female  animals  have  these  sensitive  organs  cut  out  of  their 
bodies  in  full  consciousness,  and  this  is  done  on  millions  of  ani- 
mals annually.  We  know  to  a  million  or  two,  but  there  are  many 
millions.  You  must  not  think  that  I  am  exaggerating  about  it :  you 
will  find  it  from  the  statistics  returned  by  the  Board  of  Agriculture 
every  year."  —  Sir  John  M'Fadyean,  Second  Report  of  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Vivisection,  March  1907. 


46  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

distress.     Millions  of  them,  to  each  of  us :   why  has 
Christian  Science  left  them  out  ? 

Because  their  sufferings  are  a  dismal -occasion,  to 
be  evaded,  Hke  the  Last  Supper:  and  their  natural 
ways  make  havoc  of  her  spiritual  world,  which  is  her 
only  world.  She  does  not  admit,  in  her  real  world, 
any  creature  that  will  not  promise  to  behave  nicely. 
No  accommodation  is  provided  for  animals  that  love 
to  fight  and  tear  and  kill,  or  for  internal  parasites, 
or  for  mosquitoes  with  their  stomachs  full  of  malaria. 
And,  when  we  laugh  at  her  picture  of  God's  world, 
as  at  a  fairy  scene  out  of  a  pantomime,  she  says 
that  we  believe  in  a  corporeal  Jehovah.  That  is 
what  comes  of  leaving  the  animals  out  of  Creation. 
She  cannot  put  them  back  now,  or  find  a  place  for 
them.  She  made  her  little  doll's  house  without  a 
staircase;  and,  to  put  in  the  staircase  now,  would 
wreck  the  top  rooms  of  the  doll's  house.  What 
can  she  have  to  tell  us  of  the  lives  of  animals  ? 

Instead  of  them,  she  gives  us  her  "spiritual  inter- 
pretation" of  them.  This  interpretation  is  con- 
tained in  the  Key  to  the  Scriptures.^  This  Key 
contains  a  few  random  notes  on  Genesis  and  the 
Apocalypse;  and  a  new  version  of  the  Psalm,  "The 
Lord  is  my  Shepherd,"  showing,  though  faintly,  the 
light  that  Christian  Science  throws  on  the  Scriptures,^ 
To  the  rest  of  the  Scriptures  there  is  no  Key.  Then 
comes  a  Glossary,  which  "contains  the  metaphysi- 
cal interpretation  of  Bible  terms,  giving  their  spirit- 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  47 

ual  sense,  which  is  also  their  original  meaning."  ^ 
Here  are  some  examples  from  this  Glossary :  — 

Adam.  Error;  a  falsity;  the  belief  in  "original  sin,"  sickness, 
and  death ;  evil ;  the  opposite  of  good,  God  and  His  creation ;  a 
curse;  a  belief  in  intelligent  matter,  finiteness,  and  mortality; 
"dust  to  dust";  red  sandstone;  nothingness;  the  first  god  of 
mythology;  not  God's  man.  ...  A  product  of  nothing,  as  the 
mimicry  of  something;  an  unreality,  as  opposed  to  the  great  reality 
of  spiritual  existence  and  creation;  a  so-called  man;  .  .  .  the 
image  and  likeness  of  what  God  has  not  created,  namely,  matter, 
sin,  sickness,  and  death.  .  .  . 

Baptism*     Purification  by  Spirit;   submergence  in  Spirit. 

Children.  Life,  Truth,  and  Love's  spiritual  thoughts  and  rep- 
resentatives. Sensual  and  mortal  beliefs;  counterfeits  of  creation, 
whose  better  originals  are  God's  thoughts,  not  in  embryo,  but  in 
maturity;  material  suppositions  of  life,  substance,  and  intelligence, 
opposed  to  the  Science  of  being. 

Dan  (Jacob's  son).     Animal  magnetism.  .  .  . 

Death.  An  illusion,  the  lie  of  life  in  matter;  the  unreal  and 
untrue;  the  opposite  of  Life.  .  .  . 

Devil.  Evil;  a  lie;  error;  neither  corporeality  nor  mind; 
the  opposite  of  Truth ;  a  belief  in  sin,  sickness,  and  death ;  animal 
magnetism.  .  .  . 

(Elias,  Euphrates,  and  Gad,  are  all  of  them  Christian  Science.) 

Gihon  (river).  The  rights  of  woman  acknowledged  morally, 
civilly,  and  socially. 

(Ham  and  Issachar  are  each  a  corporeal  belief.  Hiddekel 
(river),  and  Holy  Ghost,  are  Divine  Science.  Jacob  is  first  cor- 
poreal, then  spiritual;  so  is  Judah.    Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and  New 

*  "Our  baptism  is  a  purification  from  all  error."®  One  of 
Mrs.  Eddy's  students  recalls  how  she  once  held  a  baptismal 
service  without  water.  —  Lyman  Powell,  work  cited,  p.  i6o. 


48  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

Jerusalem,  are  Divine  Science:  Levi  is  a  corporeal  and  sensual 
belief,  mortal  man,  .  .  .  and  ecclesiastical  despotism.) 

Matter.  Mythology;  mortality;  another  name  for  mortal 
mind;  illusion  .  .  .  sensation  in  the  sensationless.  .  .  . 

Mind.     The  only  I,  or  Us.  .  .  . 

Red  Dragon.  Fear;  inflammation;  sensuality;  subtlety; 
error;  animal  magnetism. 

Serpent  is  many  false  "claims."     It  is  also  animal  magnetism. 

(There  is  no  interpretation  of  Sin,  which  is  a  word  of  some 

importance  in  the  Scriptures.) 

Will.  The  motive  power  of  error;  mortal  belief ;  animal  power. 
The  might  and  wisdom  of  God.  Will,  as  a  quality  of  so-called 
mortal  mind,  is  a  wrong-doer :  hence  it  should  not  be  confounded 
with  the  term  as  applied  to  Mind,  or  one  of  God's  qualities. 

You.    As  applied  to  corporeality,  a  mortal ;  finity. 

Such  is  the  light  that  Christian  Science  throws  on 
the  Scriptures.  Let  us  get  back  to  what  she  says 
about  the  lives  of  animals.  We  have  her  "spiritual 
interpretation"  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis. 
Here,  of  course,  the  animals  fare  badly.  She  dis- 
misses them,  as  mere  thoughts:  she  explains  them 
away :  — 

Animals  and  mortals  metaphorically  present  the  gradation  of 
mortal  thought,  rising  in  the  scale  of  intelligence,  taking  form  in 
masculine,  feminine,  or  neuter  gender.  The  fowls  which  fly 
above  the  earth,  in  the  open  firmament  of  heaven,  correspond  to 
aspirations  soaring  beyond  and  above  corporeality.  .  .  .  Holy 
thoughts,  winged  with  Love,  .  .  .  abound  in  the  spiritual  atmos- 
phere of  Mind,  and  consequently  reproduce  their  own  character- 
istics. .  .  .  Mortal  mind  inverts  the  true  likeness,  and  confers 
animal  names  and  natures  upon  its  own  misconceptions.^     The 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  49 

animals  created  by  God  are  not  carnivorous,  as  witness  the  millen- 
nial estate  pictured  by  Isaiah.  .  .  .  All  the  creatures  of  God  are 
harmless,  useful,  indestructible  (j/V),  moving  in  the  harmony  of 
Science.  A  realisation  of  this  grand  verity  was  a  source  of  strength 
to  the  ancient  worthies.  It  supports  Christian  healing,  and  enables 
its  possessor  to  emulate  the  example  of  Jesus.^ 

I  said  so:  animals,  in  Reality,  are  not.  Fowls 
are  thoughts :  and  the  carnivora  are  not  carnivorous 
—  think  of  Daniel,  says  Christian  Science,  in  the 
den  of  lions  —  and  vipers  are  not  venomous  — 
think  of  St.  Paul,  she  says,  at  Malta.  In  reality, 
animals  are  not  real,  are  not  there,  are  images,  re- 
flections, manifestations,  ideas.  They  have  not, 
in  reality,  senses,  for  they  are  not,  in  reality,  selves. 
Their  pleasures  and  pains,  instincts  and  passions, 
homing  and  mating  and  fighting,  are  not  really  in 
them,  but  in  God,  or  in  us.  It  does  not  matter  which 
we  say,  God  or  us.  Mind  is  the  only  I,  or  Us. 
Let  the  bad  grammar  pass :  hold  fast  this  happy 
assurance,  that  God  is  the  only  Us. 


50  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 


IV 

THE   REALITY  OF   DISEASES 

The  Faith  and  its  Founder  are  inseparable;  and 
we  try  in  vain  to  leave  out  Mrs.  Eddy.  Of  her, 
through  her,  it  all  came :  the  revelation  was  to  her, 
the  miracles  were  by  her.  Thanks  to  God  and  Mrs. 
Eddy,  is  the  usual  phrase  of  the  healed;  it  may  even 
be,  Thanks  to  Mrs.  Eddy  and  God.  To  impose  a  new 
form  of  thought  on  half-a-million  of  people,  to  heal 
so  many  souls  and  bodies,  are  achievements  which 
court  inquiry.  Her  Kingdom,  her  more  than  Papal 
decrees,  her  name  of  Mother  Mary,*  her  general 
attitude  toward  the  Universe,  annul  the  plea,  Why 
cant  you  leave  a  lady  alone  ?  To  my  thinking,  our 
plain  duty  is,  to  study  her  life.  I  take  my  facts 
from  Mr.  Lyman  Powell's  admirable  book. 

She  was  born  at  Bow,  New  Hampshire,  in  1821. 
It  was  a  time  when  "New  England  was  indulging 
to  the  full  her  native   penchant  for  the  mystical. 

*  She  gave  herself  this  name,  and  made  it,  in  a  by-law  of  the 
Mother  Church,  "  an  indication  of  disrespect,  and  unfitness  to  be 
a  member  of  the  Mother  Church,"  for  Scientists  to  call  any  other 
woman  Mother,  except  their  real  mothers.  In  1903,  she  changed 
it  to  Leader.     See  Lyman  Powell,  p.  150;  Mark  Twain,  p.  148. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  51 

Clairvoyance,  spiritualism,  mesmerism,  and  other 
psychical  phenomena  were  in  the  air."  When  she 
was  fifteen,  the  family  moved  to  Tilton,  near  Canter- 
bury, where  was  a  community  of  the  Shakers;  "their 
leader  had  died  long  years  before,  but  they  were 
still  speaking  of  her  as  the  *  Mother,'  'the  female 
principle  of  God,'  'the  female  Christ';  using  such 
terms  as  'Father-Mother  God,'  'the  Church  of 
Christ,'  'the  Mother  Church';  and  refusing  to  pray 
audibly,  and  setting  celibacy  high  above  the  mar- 
riage state." 

As  a  girl,  "she  invariably  took  the  centre  of  the 
stage.  She  expected  and  accepted  the  peculiar  con- 
sideration given  to  her  instinctively  by  everybody 
in  the  family  and  friendly  circle.  When  her  sweet- 
ness and  her  charm,  however,  were  not  adequate 
to  win  the  influence  desired,  she  knew  how  to  chal- 
lenge and  command.  High-strung  and  hysterical,  she 
knew  when  to  employ  the  arts  of  the  neurotic*.  .  . 
The  stories  of  her  school-days  are  the  stories  many 
people  tell  about  the  school-days  of  extraordi- 
nary people.  Her  schoolmates  found  her  indolent 
and  indifferent  to  the  routine  to  which  they  yielded 
without  murmuring.  ...  If  one  is  obliged  to  draw 
any  inference  as  to  her  schooling  from  the  facts  in 

*"She  was  extremely  nervous  and  hysterical,  and,  as  child 
and  woman,  subject  to  certain  violent  seizures.  Mary  Baker's  *  fits/ 
as  outsiders  rather  crudely  called  them,  are  still  a  household  word 
among  her  old  friends. "  —  The  Milmine  Articles, 


52  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

evidence,*  it  will,  perhaps,  be  not  unlike  that 
which  her  schoolmates  stated  in  the  homely  words : 
'Mary  Baker  completed  her  education  when  she 
had  finished  Smith's  grammar  and  had  reached  long 
division  in  arithmetic.'" 

In  December  1843  she  married  her  first  husband; 
who  died,  six  months  later,  of  yellow  fever.  In 
September  1844,  her  son  was  born.  "The  years 
that  followed  are  too  sad  and  bleak  for  full  descrip- 
tion. The  widowed  mother,  just  past  twenty-three, 
was  lapsing  from  frailness  into  an  invalidism  which 
was  not  to  lift  till  she  was  almost  fifty.  Her  baby 
fell  into  the  hands  of  kind  but  ignorant  caretakers, 
grew  up  without  education,  and  has  seldom  seen 
his  mother  since  his  babyhood.  .  .  .  She  lived  with 
one  relative  for  a  time,  and  then  passed  on  to  the 
next  who  would  receive  her.  Poor  relation  as  she 
was  in  every  house,  she  acted  steadily  as  though  her 
presence  was  a  privilege  to  be  impressed  on  those 
with  whom  she  lived.  She  took  the  best  they 
had  to  give,  as  though  it  were  her  right.  She  had 
the  family  life  adjusted  to  her  nerves.  She  made 
herself  the  centre  of  each  situation.  She  gave  the 
servants  extra  trouble,  if  there  were  servants  in  the 
house.     If  there  were  not,  she  let  it  sometimes  fall 

*  She  says  of  herself,  "After  my  discovery  of  Christian  Science, 
most  of  the  knowledge  I  had  gleaned  from  school-books  vanished 
like  a  dream."  —  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  Christian  Science 
Publishing  Society,  Boston,  Mass.,  p.  20. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  53 

upon  a  hostess  old  enough  to  be  her  mother.  If 
the  thought  of  helping-on,  as  others  do  who  fall  into 
her  plight,  ever  crossed  her  mind,  she  carefully  safe- 
guarded it  from  practical  expression.  ...  In  all 
those  bitter  years,  which  ran  on  from  1843  *^  ^^7^, 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  engaged  almost  continuously  in 
wearing  out  her  welcome  and  in  saying  good-bye 
to  the  past." 

In  1853  she  married  again.  Her  second  husband 
was  an  itinerant  dentist.  "One  who  knew  him  tells 
me,  *He  was  too  slow  for  her.'  He  was  not  a  good 
provider.  He  could  not  always  earn  a  living  as  a 
dentist,  and  so  he  sometimes  practised  homoeopathy, 
and  even  turned  his  hand  to  running  a  saw-mill. 
They  lived  for  years  a  precarious  existence,  moving 
from  place  to  place."  In  1862  they  separated  for 
about  two  years.  There  was  final  separation  in 
1866,  and  divorce  in  1873. 

Long  before  this  time,  she  had  gone,  in  1862, 
to  Portland,  Maine,  to  be  healed  by  Quimby,  the 
mental  healer.  He  was,  in  1862,  sixty  years  old. 
From  him  she  learned,  appropriated,  reproduced,  the 
principles,  ideas,  even  some  of  the  phrases,  of 
Christian  Science.  Phineas  Parkhurst  Quimby  was 
the  son  of  a  blacksmith.  "Apprenticed,  as  a  boy, 
to  a  clockmaker,  he  early  showed  those  keen  powers 
of  observation,  inventiveness,  and  originality  of 
thought,  which  made  him  a  marked  man  his  whole 
life   through.      A   truth-lover   and   truth-seeker   by 


54  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

instinct,  he  never  took  opinions  ready-made.  He 
read  much.  The  Bible  was  ever  in  his  hand,  and 
sometimes  Berkeley."  In  early  years,  he  studied, 
and  practised,  mesmerism.  Later,  he  worked-out 
for  himself  a  sound  and  w^holesome  system  of  mental 
healing;  on  which  he  wrote  ten  manuscript  volumes. 
The  manuscript  which  Mrs.  Eddy  used  in  the  late 
sixties  and  the  early  seventies,  and  regularly  said  was 
Quimby's,  is  in  complete  agreement  with  the  Quimby 
theory.  "Many  of  his  characteristic  phrases  are 
reproduced,  practically  unchanged,  in  Mrs.  Eddy's 
writings,  and  are  current  coins  to-day  among  Chris- 
tian Scientists  everywhere."  Mr.  Lyman  Powell 
quotes,  from  Quimby,  the  following  phrases.  .  .  . 
"Christian  Science:  Science  of  Health :  Matter  has 
no  intelligence:  Matter  is  an  error:  Understanding 
is  God :  Truth  is  God :  God  is  Principle :  Wisdom, 
Truth,  and  Love  is  the  Principle:  All  sciences  are 
part  of  God.  The  idea,  man  is  the  highest  —  hence 
the  image  of  God :  Error  is  sickness.  Truth  is  health : 
The  patient's  disease  is  in  his  disbelief.  .  .  .  If  you 
are  not  afraid  to  face  the  error  and  argue  it  down, 
then  you  can  heal  the  sick."  Side  by  side  with  these 
phrases  and  sentences,  he  sets  the  parallel  phrases 
and  sentences  of  Science  and  Health.  "The  deadly 
parallel,"  he  says,  "does  not  always  prove  its  case. 
There  may  be  similarity  of  view  without  plagiarism. 
But,  when  similarity  shades  off  into  practical  identity 
in  thought  and  word  alike,  there  is  but  one  conclusion 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  55 

to  be  reached.  The  passages  in  parallel  speak  for 
themselves,  and  from  them  there  is  no  appeal  con- 
ceivable." 

The  documentary  evidence,  indeed,  is  overwhelm- 
ing, that  Mrs.  Eddy  found  Christian  Science  in 
Quimby.  "The  most  she  ever  did  for  him,  who  did 
so  much  for  her,  was  to  give  him,  while  he  was  alive, 
the  appreciation  precious  beyond  words  to  every  doc- 
tor, and,  after  he  was  dead,  fulsome  verse,  in  which 
she  made  sackcloth  clothe  the  sun  and  day  grow 
night.  And  then,  as  years  went  by,  and  ambition 
grew  with  what  it  fed  on,  she  began  to  claim,  first, 
that  she  had  started  Quimby  on  his  course,  then, 
that  she,  not  he,  had  planned  the  course,  and  last, 
that  he  had  not  taken  any  course  at  all  of  mental 
healing,  but  was  a  mere  mesmerist.  .  .  .  When  she 
was  helped  up  the  stairs,  in  October  1862,  to  Dr. 
Quimby's  office,  she  was  *  a  frail  shadow  of  a  woman.' 
Pale,  emaciated,  shabby,  the  stamp  of  poverty  as 
well  as  illness  on  her  face  and  form,  her  first  request 
of  Quimby  was  to  assist  her  to  secure  an  inexpen- 
sive boarding-place.  Three  weeks  later,  she  left 
him,  a  well  woman  —  well  in  body  and  in  mind. 
Quimby  had  cured  her  of  her  nervous  trouble,  but 
that  was  the  least  that  he  had  done  for  her.  He  had 
given  her  the  idea  which  was  to  dominate  her  whole 
life,  the  rock  on  which  she  was  by  and  by  to  build 
her  church,  against  which  she  has  been  wont,  ever 
since,  stoutly  to  assert,  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not 


56  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

prevail.  .  .  .  She  had  at  last  a  great  idea.  It 
came  to  her  in  all  its  force  and  fulness  with  Quimby's 
stamp  on  it.  But  it  was  hers;  hers  even  to  the 
repudiation  —  if  she  pleased  —  of  the  Quimby 
stamp." 

On  February  i,  1866,  came  the  occasion  of  her 
"discovery"  of  Christian  Science.  She  slipped  on 
some  ice,  and  fell,  and  had  a  "severe  nervous  shock." 
We  have  the  doctor's  affidavit  that  she  was  not 
critically  ill;  that  he  never  said  that  she  was;  that 
she  followed  his  directions  to  the  letter;  that  she 
improved  at  once,  and  was  cured  in  a  fortnight. 
We  have  her  statement,  that  she  depended  solely 
upon  God,  read  the  story  in  the  Bible  of  the  healing 
of  the  palsied  man  by  Jesus  Christ,  caught  *the  lost 
chord  of  Truth,  healing,  as  of  old,  from  the  Divine 
Harmony,'  and,  the  third  day,  rose  as  one  from  the 
dead,  appeared  before  the  friends  who  had  gathered 
in  the  adjoining  room  to  say  good-bye  to  her,  and 
was  at  first  believed  to  be  an  apparition.  Six  months 
later,  she  called  on  the  doctor  again,  to  treat  her  for 
a  cough. 

"It  was  a  wretched  life  she  lived  in  Lynn  after 
the  final  separation  from  her  husband.  She  was 
physically  and  temperamentally  unfit  to  earn  her 
living.  She  did  not  play  successfully  the  role  of  the 
professional  visitor.  She  could  not  efface  herself  in 
any  home.  She  neither  helped  along  nor  kept  hands 
off  the  family  affairs.     She  could  not  master  the 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  57 

simple  lesson,  easily  learned  by  normal  people  who 
visit  much,  of  leaving  the  family,  enlarged  to  take 
her  in,  more  closely  knit  together  because  she  had 
been  in  it.  There  are  families  which  still  feel  the 
strain  she  put  upon  them  years  ago."  The  evidence 
of  these  facts  is  in  Mr.  Lyman  Powell's  book :  it  is 
a  dismal  picture.  For  two  years,  before  1870,  she 
was  at  Stoughton,  with  a  family  named  Wentworth. 
Three  of  that  circle  are  alive,  "and  retain  vivid 
memories  of  that  visit.  They  tell  me  the  same  story, 
of  a  favourable  first  impression,  passing  into  the 
usual  strained  relationship,  as  the  daily  contact 
unveiled  a  nature  self-centred,  at  the  cost  of  family 
peace  and  happiness.  .  .  .  All  those  months,  she 
was  consumed  with  a  desire  to  put  the  Quimby 
theory  into  a  book.  She  was  ever  writing  at  it,  ever 
trying  to  ifind  funds  for  its  publication.  She  was  even 
willing  that  Mrs.  Wentworth,  without  her  husband's 
knowledge,  should  put  a  mortgage  on  the  place,  to 
secure  the  money  needed.  She  talked  Quimby 
until  every  one  grew  'dead  tired  of  hearing'  of  him, 
and  Mrs.  Clapp  (the  Wentworths'  niece),  in  imita- 
tion of  the  Quimby  propagandist,  would  fold  her 
hands  softly  in  her  lap,  smile  gently,  nod  her  head 
slowly,  and  remark,  */  learned  this  from  Dr.  Quimby, 
and  he  made  me  promise  to  teach  it  to  at  least  two 
persons  before  I  die.'  .  .  .  Her  one  interest  was,  to 
teach  Quimbyism,  to  'carpenter'  it  out  into  a  book, 
and  find  the  means  to  publish  it.     What  she  needed 


58  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

most,  was  some  one  who  could  illustrate  her  theory 
by  effective  healing.  Him  she  found  in  Richard 
Kennedy."  This  was  a  good-natured,  clear-headed, 
and  clean-minded  youth,  just  coming  into  manhood. 
They  started  business  together.  "While  her  partner 
healed,  and  paid  all  bills  for  both,  she  taught:  and, 
though  the  major  portions  of  her  profits  came  from 
Richard  Kennedy's  generosity,  she  also  contributed 
to  the  adequate  bank  account  she  now  had  for  the 
first  time.  ...  As  months  slipped  by,  she  grew 
more  assertive  and  ambitious.  Once,  in  a  burst  of 
confidence,  she  said  to  her  young  partner,  in  whom 
people  to  this  day  instinctively  confide,  'Richard, 
I  was  born  an  unwelcome  child,  and  I  mean  to  have 
the  whole  world  at  my  feet  before  I  die.'  She  said, 
more  than  once,  to  him,  *You  will  live  to  hear  the 
church  bells  ring  out  my  birthday.'  ...  As  stu- 
dents multiplied,  she  grew  more  certain  of  her- 
self. For  twelve  lessons,  her  first  students  paid  her 
100  dollars  each,  promised  her  a  life  annuity  of  lo 
per  cent  of  all  their  future  earnings,  and  gave  a 
3000  dollars  bond,  not  to  show  any  one  the  copy 
she  allowed  them  to  make  of  the  manuscripts, 
now  grown  from  Quimby's  one  to  three.  At  the 
end  of  three  weeks,  she  saluted  them  as  Doctor, 
and  sent  them  out  into  the  world  to  practise 
Quimbyism  without  the  name  of  Quimby.  Moved, 
she  says,  *  by  a  strange  providence,'  she  raised  her 
charges  in  a  little  while  to  300  dollars  for  twelve 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  59 

lessons,*  reduced,  in  later  years,  in  Boston,  to  the 
number  seven." 

*  "When  God  impelled  me  to  set  a  price  on  my  instruction  in 
Christian  Science  Mind-healing,  I  could  think  of  no  financial 
equivalent  for  an  impartation  of  a  knowledge  of  that  divine  power 
which  heals;  but  I  was  led  to  name  three  hundred  dollars.  .  .  . 
God  has  since  shown  me,  in  multitudinous  ways,  the  wisdom  of 
this  decision.'*  —  Retrospection  and  Introspection^  p.  71. 

Of  her  quarrels  with  her  students,  Mr.  Lyman  Powell  says, 
"Never  able  permanently  to  retain  those  who  would  not  give 
their  heart  and  mind  completely  to  her  keeping,  she  soon  began 
to  lose  some  of  her  more  thoughtful  students.  Writes  one  of  them 
to  me:  *As  a  teacher,  she  considered  herself  the  wisdom,  and  in 
all  things  was  to  be  obeyed;  any  one  going  contrary  was  in  re- 
bellion and  must  be  put  down.  In  the  class,  she  strove  to  preju- 
dice her  students  against  any  rebellious  ones,  through  awakening 
as  much  sympathy  as  possible  among  the  loyal,  by  informing 
them  that  she  was  caused  both  mental  and  physical  suffering  by 
their  misconduct.  *  One  woman  left  her  class,  because  she  thought 
Mrs.  Eddy  *was  taking  Christ  away  from  her.'  Another,  through 
the  court,  recovered  her  tuition  fee  on  the  ground  that  she  had 
not  received  her  money's  worth.  Some  sued  her;  others  she 
sued.  The  air  was  thick  with  litigation.  With  some  of  the 
choicest  spirits,  her  system  broke  down  of  sheer  absurdity,  as  she 
began  to  put  it  to  unnecessary  strain.  .  .  .  But,  every  time  she 
lost  a  follower,  another  came  to  take  his  place.  Disciples  increased 
alike  in  zeal  and  numbers.  Those  who  came  to  stay,  passed 
under  the  spell  she  put  upon  them.  Her  influence  had  no  neces- 
sary relationship  to  the  system  she  was  teaching.  It  would  have 
been  as  dominating,  had  she  been  preaching  Comtism  or  Mor- 
monism.  It  was  not,  as  some  have  thought,  humbuggery  that 
attracted  many,  but  a  hypnotic  influence  —  the  power  Mrs.  Eddy 
has  of  profound,  and,  to  some,  irresistible  suggestion." 


6o  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

She  had  many  quarrels  with  her  students.  One 
of  them  was  so  disgusted  by  her  claims  that  she 
could  raise  the  dead,  that  he  challenged  her  to  give 
a  public  exhibition.  She  quarrelled  even  with  young 
Kennedy,  "whom  it  would  be  difficult  to-day  for 
any  one  to  differ  with  in  anger.  She  followed  him, 
like  any  mediaeval  pope,  with  her  anathemas;  made 
him  the  occasion  of  the  development  of  her  strange 
obsession  of  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism;  singled 
him  out,  nine  years  later,  for  furious  denunciation 
in  the  third  edition  of  her  book;  and  at  last  dis- 
missed him  as  the  Nero  of  to-day."  In  1875,  she 
published  her  book,  ^nd  entered  into  a  sort  of 
partnership  with  another  healer,  Mr.  Spofford. 
In  January  1877,  she  broke  with  him,  and  he  was 
expelled  from  the  Christian  Science  Association,  on 
the  charge  of  "immorality,"  that  is,  of  disloyalty  to 
her.  "As  she  had  followed,  and  was  still  following, 
Richard  Kennedy  with  her  frenzied  thought,  so  now 
she  followed  Mr.  Spofford,  mild  and  serene  as  he 
was,  to  the  ridiculous  extremity  of  causing  him  to  be 
haled  into  the  Salem  court,  in  the  spring  of  1878, 
on  the  charge  of  witchcraft." 

In  1877,  also,  she  married  her  third  huband,  Asa 
Gilbert  Eddy.  He  had  been  a  sewing-machine  agent, 
a  Christian  Science  student,  and  a  pedler  of  her 
book.  "He  yielded  the  unquestioning  obedience 
necessary  to  retain  his  place.  He  did  what  he  was 
told  to  do.     He  would  solicit  students  for  his  wife, 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  6i 

or  take  up  the  collection  at  the  Sunday  service  when 
she  preached  the  sermon.  His  sister-in-law  re- 
members that  *he  could  do-up  a  shirt  as  well  as  any 
woman.'  He  would  even  turn  docility  into  self- 
efFacement.  One  of  several  who  knew  Mr.  Eddy, 
and  have  given  me  their  recollections  of  him,  informs 
me  that  Mr.  Eddy  seemed  to  him  slow  and  over- 
cautious, rather  than  actually  dull  or  stupid.  He 
thought  him  completely  overawed  and  benumbed  by 
his  wife's  stronger  nature.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  he  objected  to  Mrs.  Eddy's  use  of  the  editorial 
we  in  writing  of  herself,  or  to  her  reference  to  him 
as  our  husband.  She  had  already  made  him  'Doc- 
tor,' after  his  twelve  lessons  with  her  in  the  art  of 
healing.  Now  she  made  him  the  first  organiser  of  a 
Christian  Science  Sunday-school."  He  also  taught 
a  Bible-class.     He  died  in  1882.* 

By  1882,  "Lynn  Was  already  growing  weary  of 
the  new  faith  and  its  founder.  Students  one  by  one 
withdrew,  till  once  she  had  but  two  left.  Realising 
that  there  was  nothing  more  that  she  could  do  in 
Lynn,  she  dissolved  her  little  church  of  less  than 
fifty  members,  and  early  in  the  winter  of  1882  beat 
a  wise  retreat  to  Boston."     She  had  already  secured 

*  According  to  McClure's  Magazine,  the  post-mortem  examina- 
tion showed  extreme  valvular  disease  of  the  heart.  "To  satisfy 
Mrs.  Eddy,  the  physician  showed  her  the  heart,  and  yet  she  still 
insisted  that  her  husband  had  died  of  'malicious  mesmerism,*  or 
*  arsenical  poisoning  mentally  administered.*" 


62  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

a  charter  for  thtM ass achusetts Metaphysical  College.^ 
"  It  never  had  a  building  of  its  own.  It  met  in  Mrs. 
Eddy's  parlour,  and  its  faculty  consisted  solely  of 
Mrs.  Eddy.  But  the  college  grew,  in  face  of  all 
discouragements,  and  out  of  it  developed  various 
organisations."  In  1886,  the  National  Christian 
Science  Association  f  was  formed,  and  met  in  New 
York.  By  this  time,  her  dominant  will,  her  clever- 
ness, her  power  of  oratory,  were  fully  developed. 
"  Her  house  was  her  strategic  point  for  doing  things 
and  managing  people.  Classes  were  meeting  all  day 
long.  There  was  little  social  intercourse,  and  no 
idling.  But  there  was  much  self-consciousness, 
grown  morbid  through  Mrs.  Eddy's  over-emphasis 
of  malicious  animal  magnetism.  She  herself  was 
troubled  with  nocturnal  hysteria,  which  she  invariably 

*  Of  this  "College,"  Mr.  Purrington  says  that  its  classes  were 
only  three  in  number,  the  primary,  the  normal,  and  the  obstetric. 
Mrs.  Eddy  seems  to  have  taught  them  all:  but  her  husband 
taught  two  terms,  her  adopted  son  one  term,  and  General  Eras- 
tus  Bates  one  term.  "Persons,"  she  says,  "contemplating  a 
course  at  the  Massachusetts  Metaphysical  College,  can  prepare 
for  it  through  no  books  except  the  Bible  and  'Science  and  Health 
with  Key  to  the  Scriptures.*  Man-made  theories  are  narrow, 
else  extravagant,  and  always  materialistic."  —  Misc.  fFritings, 
Christian  Science  Publishing  Society,  Boston,  Mass.,  p.  64. 

f  It  was  to  this  Association  that  she  sent  the  famous  telegram. 
May  27,  1890  —  All  hail!  He  hath  filled  the  hungry  with  good 
things,  and  the  sick  He  hath  not  sent  empty  away.  Mother  Mary, 
The  President  of  this  Association  said,  There  is  but  one  Moses, 
one  Jesus;  and  there  is  but  one  Mary. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  63 

ascribed  to  M.A.M.,  as  she  familiarly  designated  it. 
It  was  not  unusual  for  the  whole  family,  and  even 
students  living  near,  to  be  called-up  at  night  to  give 
her  mental  treatment."  In  1889,  she  made  an  end 
of  her  Metaphysical  College,  and  moved  from 
Boston  to  Concord. 

But,  for  the  study  of  her  life,  we  have  it  all  in 
Mr.  Lyman  Powell's  book,  put  with  the  most  careful 
judgment.  For  years,  he  has  studied  Christian 
Science.  To  verify  statements  in  the  Milmine 
articles,  he  travelled  more  than  twenty-five  hundred 
miles:  and,  he  says,  "I  am  glad  to  be  able  to 
testify  to  the  singular  accuracy  of  the  articles, 
and  the  thoroughness  with  which  they  have  been 
prepared." 

In  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  we  have  her 
own  account  of  her  life.  As  a  child,  eight  years  old, 
she  heard  repeatedly,  for  a  whole  year,  a  mysterious 
voice  calling  her  distinctly  by  name  —  Mary,  Mary, 
Mary  —  three  times,  in  an  ascending  scale.  She  says 
that  a  little  cousin,  staying  with  her,  also  heard  this 
voice.  She  was  kept  much  away  from  school, 
because  her  brain  was  too  large  for  her  body.  When 
she  was  eleven  years  old,  she  was  "so  perturbed  by 
the  erroneous  doctrines  of  Unconditional  Election 
or  Predestination,"  that  the  family  doctor  was 
summoned,  and  pronounced  her  stricken  with  fever. 
She  devoted  much  attention  to  "Allopathy,  Homoeo- 
pathy, Electricity,  and  various  humbugs."     It  was 


64  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

homoeopathy  that  helped  her  to  discover  Christian 
Science :  — 

The  physical  side  of  this  research  was  aided  by  hints  from 
Homoeopathy,  sustaining  my  final  conclusion  that  mortal  belief, 
instead  of  the  drug,  governed  the  action  of  material  medicine. 
I  wandered  through  the  dim  mazes  of  Materia  Medica,  till  I  was 
weary  of  "scientific  guessing,"  as  it  has  been  well  called.  I  sought 
knowledge  from  the  different  schools  —  Allopathy,  Homoeopathy, 
Hydropathy,  Electricity,  and  from  various  humbugs  —  but  with- 
out receiving  satisfaction.  I  found,  in  the  two  hundred  and  sixty- 
two  remedies  enumerated  by  Jahr,  one  pervading  secret  —  namely, 
that  the  less  material  medicine  we  have,  and  the  more  Mind,  the 
better  the  work  is  done;  a  fact  which  seems  to  prove  the  principle 
of  Mind-healing.  One  drop  of  the  thirtieth  attenuation  of  Natrum 
Muriaticum,  in  a  tumbler-full  of  water,  and  one  teaspoonful  of  the 
water  mixed  with  the  faith  of  ages,  would  cure  patients  not  affected 
by  a  larger  dose.  The  drug  disappears  in  the  higher  attenuations 
of  Homoeopathy,*  and  matter  is  thereby  rarefied  to  its  fatal  essence, 
mortal  mind;  but  immortal  Mind  the  curative  principle  remains, 
and  is  found  to  be  even  more  active.* 

Finally,  we  have  to  bear  it  in  mind  that  she 
talks,  in  Science  and  Health,  of  humours,  and  of  con- 
sumption in  the  blood :  that  she  refers,  as  authorities, 

*  This  account  of  Homoeopathy  will  hardly  find  acceptance 
among  homoeopathists.  Dr.  A.  M.  Kellas  kindly  sends  me  the 
following  note:  —  "The  figures  for  Hahnemann's  dilutions  are 
as  follows:  Fifth  dilution,  i  in  312,500;  tenth  dilution,  i  in 
97,656,250,000,000,000;  thirtieth  dilution,  I  in  931,322,574,615, 
478,515,625,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.  Hahne- 

mann preferred  the  thirtieth  dilution.  Of  course  recent  homoeo- 
paths do  not  follow  his  dilutions.'*  The  point  is,  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
did. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  65 

to  Graham,  Cutter,  and  Jahr:  and  that  she  warns 
her  students  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  physiology 
and  pathology :  "  I  recommend  students  not  to  read 
so-called  scientific  works,  antagonistic  to  Christian 
Science."^  And  again,  ** The  lecturer,  teacher,  or 
the  healer,  who  is  indeed  a  Christian  Scientist,  never 
introduces  the  subject  of  human  anatomy;  never 
depicts  the  muscular,  vascular,  or  nervous  operations 
of  the  human  frame.  He  never  thinks  about  the 
structure  of  the  material  body."  ^ 

Thus,  from  her  life,  her  temperament,  and  her 
writings,  we  see  that  she  does  not  understand,  does 
not  wish  to  understand,  the  facts  of  Disease.  And, 
of  course.  Christian  Scientists  take  their  tone  from 
her.  For,  says  Christian  Science,  all  diseases  are 
mental.  Call  them  by  as  many  and  as  long  names 
as  you  like,  they  are  all  the  same  phantasy.  They 
are  none  of  them  really  there.  It  is  all  a  dream  of 
mortal  mind. 

But  the  doctor  has  a  ready  answer.  I  assume,  he 
says,  that  you  are  right.  I  assume  that  Mind  is  All, 
and  All  is  Mind ;  that  diseases  are  unreal,  are 
nothing.  In  brief,  I  assume  that  all  diseases  are 
ghosts.  But  they  are  not  all  the  same  ghost. 
Nervous  dislike  of  meals  is  one  ghost,  and  gastric 
ulcer  is  another :  and  the  ghost  of  pain  in  the  breast 
is  not  the  ghost  of  cancer  in  the  breast.  I  agree 
with  you,  that  all  these  apparitions  are  equally  un- 
real;   still,  I  am  bound  to  insist  on  the  difference 


66  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

between  one  phantom  and  another.  For  example,  a 
cough  may  be  due  to  pleurisy,  pneumonia,  bronchitis, 
laryngitis,  cancer,  reflex  irritation,  or  pharyngitis  — 
ghosts,  all  of  them,  pure  hallucinations  of  medical 
mind.  Only,  they  are  seven  ghosts,  not  one.  Or 
take  an  "  acute  abdominal  case."  It  may  be  any  one 
of  many  ghosts,  but  it  cannot  be  all  of  them. 

Now,  says  the  doctor,  we  all  know  that  ghosts  can 
be  laid.  For  one,  exorcism;  for  another,  the  right- 
ing of  a  wrong,  or  the  vindication  of  the  ghost's  hon- 
our; for  a  third,  the  returning  of  property  to  the  heir, 
or  of  a  coffinful  of  bones  to  consecrated  ground.  All 
these  methods  of  treatment  are  ghostly.  There  is 
no  way,  save  ghostly  ways,  of  getting  at  a  ghost. 
So  it  is  with  the  treatment  of  diseases.  I  agree  with 
you  that  all  drugs,  like  all  diseases,  are  phantasmal; 
that  all  drugging,  like  all  ghost-laying,  is  a  casting- 
out  of  one  illusion  by  another.  None  the  less, 
though  all  diseases  be  mental,  and  all  drugs  be 
mental,  yet  the  action  of  the  drug,  the  relation 
between  the  drug  and  the  disease,  is  Absolute  Reality. 
Bromide  does  act  on  epilepsy;  quinine  does  act  on 
malaria,  every  time  that  it  squeaks  and  gibbers  in  the 
streets  of  the  body;  antitoxin  does  lay  diphtheria, 
especially  in  the  first  twenty-four  hours  of  its  appear- 
ance; and  anaesthetics  do  cast  out  pain.  I  am  no 
more  afraid  to  follow  all  these  ghosts  to  their  logical 
conclusions  than  Hamlet  was  afraid  to  follow  his 
father's  ghost  to  the  more  remote  part  of  the  plat- 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  67 

form.  I  rejoice  with  you,  says  the  doctor  to  Chris- 
tian Science,  over  the  native  nothingness  of  Matter. 
I  love  to  hear  you  say  that  Mind  is  not  an  entity 
within  the  cranium.  I  could  spend  hours,  watching 
you  rub  the  world  right  out,  like  a  child  with  a  wet 
sponge  and  a  slate.  For,  of  course,  all  these  in- 
tellectual performances  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
blessed  fact  that  quinine  does  act  on  malaria. 

For  we  are  not  booked,  by  that  fact,  to  any  theory 
of  Matter.  We  are  only  saying  that  there  is  a  certain 
relation,  between  what  we  call  quinine,  and  what 
we  call  malaria.  Though  each  of  them  be  a  dream, 
their  relation  is  not  in  dreamland.  If  Christian 
Science  doubts  the  reality  of  this  relation,  let  her 
try  to  get  away  from  it.  Let  her  climb  up  into 
Philosophy.  There,  in  the  Platonic  heaven,  she 
will  find  the  Platonic  Idea  of  Quinine,  the  Quinine- 
as-it-is-in-itself,  eternally  related  to  the  Platonic 
Idea  of  Malaria,  the  Malaria-as-it-is-in-itself.  Let 
her  seek  refuge  in  the  Christian  heaven.  There, 
as  God  gives  us  our  daily  bread,  so  He  gives  us, 
those  who  need  it,  our  daily  quinine.  The  relation 
of  quinine  to  malaria  is  the  relation  of  bread  to 
hunger:  the  whole  discovery,  preparation,  dosage, 
and  results  of  quinine  are  "the  will  of  God."  He 
gives  us  our  daily  amyloids  in  a  loaf  of  bread,  and 
our  daily  alkaloid  in  a  bottle  of  quinine  pills. 

It  comes  to  this,  that  the  action  of  drugs  on 
diseases  belongs  to  the  laws  of  Nature;    which  are 


68  THE   FAITH  AND  WORKS 

the  laws  of  mathematics;  which  are  metaphysical. 
For  example,  the  standardising  of  diphtheria-anti- 
toxin is  the  working-out  of  a  mathematical  problem, 
to  find  the  relation,  between  a  given  quantity  of  a 
sample  of  the  drug,  and  the  body-weight  of  a  given 
animal.  Here  we  have  got  back  to  Absolute  Reality. 
Now  let  us  see  what  Christian  Science  has  to  say 
about  diseases  and  drugs. 

From  such  "connate  facts"  as  "the  reputed 
longevity  of  the  Antediluvians,"  the  rapid  multi- 
plication of  diseases  since  the  flood,  and  the  increase 
of  longevity  since  the  first  publication  of  Science 
and  Health,  she  seems  to  deduce  "a  vigorous  *No'" 
as  her  response  to  the  question  whether  practitioners, 
using  material  remedies,  have  reduced  the  sum 
total  of  human  sickness.'* 

Hygiene  is  "  excessive  " :  — 

Is  civilisation  only  a  higher  form  of  idolatry,  that  man  should 
bow  down  to  a  flesh  brush,  to  flannels,  to  baths,  diet,  exercise,  and 
air?^  Bathing  and  rubbing,  to  alter  the  secretions,  or  remove 
unhealthy  exhalations  from  the  cuticle,  receive  a  useful  rebuke 
from  Christian  Healing.® 

Of  doctors  she  says :  — 

The  ordinary  practitioner,  "examining  bodily  symptoms,  telling 
the  patient  he  is  sick,  and  treating  the  case  according  to  his  diag- 
nosis, would  naturally  induce  that  very  disease,  even  if  it  were  not 
already  determined  by  mortal  mind.^ 

Christian  Science  will  find  all  about  drugs  in  the 
Book  of  Ecclesiasticus.     It  is  a  question  of  dosage. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  69 

God  makes  drugs,  but  does  not  dispense  them :  He 
informs  mortal  mind  that  doses  are  to  be  admin- 
istered. A  right  dose  is  intrinsically  good :  a  wrong 
dose  is  intrinsically  bad.  He  makes  poppies  and 
cinchona-trees  and  metals.  Also,  He  makes  mortal 
mind,  which  makes  opium  out  of  poppies  and  morphia 
out  of  opium;  quinine  out  of  cinchona  trees;  iodide 
of  potassium  and  perchloride  of  mercury  out  of 
metals;  and  then  makes  them  up,  by  the  divine  will 
and  wisdom,  in  proper  doses.  ^ 

In  cases  of  accidents,  injuries,  and  diseases  usually 
treated  by  surgery,  Christian  Science  claims  to  be 
"always  the  most  skilful  surgeon,"  declares  that  "no 
breakage  nor  dislocation  can  really  occur,"  but  rec- 
ommends to  those  practising  Christian  Science  that 
"until  the  supremacy  of  Mind  is  more  generally 
admitted  it  is  better  to  leave  surgery,  and  the  adjust- 
ment of  broken  bones  and  dislocations,  to  the  fingers 
of  a  surgeon."  At  the  same  time  it  is  asserted  that 
the  author  oi  Science  and  Health  has  in  her  possession 
"well-authenticated  records  of  the  cure  through 
mental  surgery  alone  of  dislocated  joints  *  and  spinal 

*  The  Christian  Science  Sentinel,  August  8,  1908,  describes 
the  healing  of  a  case  of  old  dislocation  of  the  hip-joint.  It  gives 
no  evidence  that  the  case  was  one  of  dislocation;  it  may  have 
been  an  old  fracture.  Anyhow,  after  treatment,  there  was  less 
pain,  and  the  patient  could  move  the  limb  more  freely;  but  it 
remained  shorter  than  the  other.  That  is  to  say,  it  was  still  dis- 
located. 


70  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

vertebrae."  ®  Some  years  ago  (see  the  Boston  Herald, 
Dec.  2,  1900,  and  the  Literary  Digest,  Dec.  29,  1900) 
there  was  a  good  deal  of  chaff,  at  the  expense  of 
Christian  Science,  because  Mrs.  Eddy  had  a  tooth 
removed  under  local  anaesthesia.  Her  ingenious 
explanation,  beginning  with  "Bishop  Berkeley 
and  I  agree  that  all  is  Mind,"  is  that  a  dentist's 
belief  in  the  means  he  employed  was  a  mental  force 
which  combined  with  her  own,  exerted  in  a  different 
direction,  producing  a  painless  operation  as  a  logi- 
cal, mathematical  "resultant  of  forces."  ^^ 

Christian  Science,  in  these  articles,  declares  her 
belief  that  Mind  is  All,  and  All  is  Mind.  Bodily 
things,  she  says,  are  not  real:  there  is  no  Reality 
left  for  them :  it  has  all  been  spent  on  God.  Whereas, 
if  God  were  not,  the  body  would  not  be.  Therefore, 
it  is  real. 

The  reality  of  the  body  is  the  reality  of  Life.  It 
is  also  the  reality  of  Death.  If  God  were  not,  there 
would  be  no  Death :  for  there  would  be  nothing  to 
die.  As  we  "live  and  move  and  have  our  being  in 
God,"  so,  in  Him,  we  shall  soon  have  our  death. 
It  will  be  real.^^  I  shall  have  to  be  really  dead.  For 
that,  I  must  die  of  something  real;  I  cannot  die  of 
a  fancy,  and,  if  I  could,  I  would  not :  it  would  be 
absurd.  At  present,  I  am  really  alive,  on  real  food : 
soon,  I  shall  be  really  dead,  of  some  real  injury  or 
disease.  Praised  be  God,  says  St.  Francis,  for  our 
Sister,  the  death  of  the  body.      It  is  better  to  die  in 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  71 

the  Lord  than  to  be  alive  unto  Christian  Science. 
What  kind  of  plaint  have  /,  who  perish  in  July?  I 
might  have  had  to  die,  perchance,  in  June.  I  dread 
the  act  of  dying;*  but  I  do  not  see  anything  amiss 
in  the  fact  of  my  death.  Perhaps  I  have  known  so 
many  poor  folk  who  could  not  die,  but  had  to  live. 
We  are  creatures,  not  Creators;  and,  if  our  death 
be  not  real,  neither  are  we.  All  speculative  thoughts 
about  Matter  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  reality 
of  our  impending  death  from  some  real  injury  or 
disease. 

And  our  fellow-creatures,  the  animals,  what  of 
them  ?  Glanders,  rinderpest,  cattle  fever,  swine 
fever,  anthrax,  distemper,  mange,  pneumonia, 
phthisis  —  are  these  and  other  diseases,  which  lie  so 
heavy  on  them,  errors  of  bovine,  equine,  porcine, 
and  the  like  minds  ?  Not  a  day  passes  round  the 
earth,  but  millions  of  animals  die,  without  the  last 
consolations  of  Christian  Science.  The  very  fabric 
of  the  ground  under  our  feet  is  made  of  their  bodies. 
Of  mammals  alone,  it  is  reckoned  that  some  two 
thousand  millions  die  annually;  and  the  deaths  of 
lesser  creatures  can  only  be  guessed  in  millions  of 

*  I  find,  from  Mr.  Lyman  Powell,  that  Mrs.  Eddy,  about  my 
age,  had  the  same  dread.  "In  the  Wentworth  home,  she  had 
shrunk  instinctively,  like  any  other  nervous  woman,  from  the 
sick-bed  of  others;  and  had  shown  such  a  morbid  fear  of  death 
that  Mrs.  Wentworth  often  wondered  what  there  could  be  in  her 
past  to  make  death  seem  so  dreadful." 


72  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

millions.  Horses  with  colic,  dogs  with  worms, 
trapped  rabbits,  wounded  game,  sick  apes,  cannot 
cure  themselves  by  reading  Science  and  Health.  Still, 
as  God  makes  them,  so  they  are  real.  Or  shall  we 
say  that  they  are  not  really  real;  that  a  monkey, 
with  its  lungs  full  of  tubercle,  is  a  dismal  occasion, 
"something  like  what  sin  is  in  us,"  an  illusion,  it 
and  its  tubercle  ?  Hear,  what  Christian  Science  de- 
clares, to  the  Seven  Churches  which  are  in  Chicago, 
touching  the  diseases  of  animals :  — 

Instinct  is  better  than  misguided  reason,  as  even  nature  declares. 
The  violet  lifts  her  blue  eye  to  greet  the  early  spring.  The  leaves 
clap  their  hands  as  nature's  untired  worshippers.  The  snow- 
bird sings  and  soars  amid  the  blasts;  he  has  no  catarrh  from  wet 
feet :  the  atmosphere  of  the  earth,  kinder  than  the  atmosphere  of 
mortal  mind,  leaves  catarrh  to  the  latter.  Colds,  coughs,  and  con- 
tagion are  engendered  solely  by  human  theories.  Mortal  mind 
produces  its  own  phenomena.^^ 

You  can  even  educate  a  healthy  horse  so  far  in  physiology, 
that  he  will  take  cold  without  his  blanket;  whereas  the  wild 
animal,  left  to  his  instincts,  sniffs  the  wind  with  delight.  The 
epizootic  is  a  humanly  evolved  ailment,  which  a  wild  horse  might 
never  have.^ 

That  is  all  that  I  can  find,  in  the  214,000  words 
o{ Science  and  Health.  The  snowbird  does  not  catch 
cold,  if  he  gets  his  feet  wet :  and  you  can  make  such 
a  fool  of  a  horse,  that  he  will  think  that  he  has 
caught  cold  by  leaving  off  his  blanket.  Here  you  have 
the  interpretation  of  the  whole  Creation  groaning  and 
travailing  in  pain  together. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  73 

Infants'  diseases  should  be  met  "through  the 
parents'  thought,  silently  or  audibly,  on  the  basis 
of  Christian  Science." 

Giving  drugs  to  infants,  noticing  every  symptom  of  flatulency, 
and  constantly  directing  the  mind  to  these  signs  —  that  mind  being 
laden  with  illusions  about  disease,  health-laws,  and  death — these 
actions  convey  mental  images  to  children's  budding  thoughts  and 
often  stamp  them  there,  making  it  probable  at  any  time  that  such 
ills  may  be  reproduced  in  the  very  ailments  feared.  A  child  can 
have  worms,  if  you  say  so  —  or  any  other  malady,  timorously 
holden  in  the  beliefs,  relative  to  his  body,  of  those  about  him." 

A  few  hours  after  I  had  transcribed  this  article, 
of  the  unreality  of  worms,  I  was  seeing  a  Hospital 
patient;  and  was  told  that  she  had  passed,  during 
the  night,  a  worm.  It  was  a  complete  surprise  to  her, 
and  to  us.  It  had  never  given  her  a  moment's  pain, 
and  she  had  never  given  it  a  moment's  thought.  Over 
a  worm  "timorously  holden  in  a  false  belief,"  let 
Christian  Science  moralise.  Over  this  one,  let  me. 
Once,  inside  its  host,  it  had  Life:  and  Life,  says 
Christian  Science,  is  God.  Therefore,  it  was 
real,  was  there.  But  the  patient  had  never  thought 
of  it:  nor  had  medical  mind.  Therefore,  it  was 
not  real,  was  not  there.  But  here  it  is.  What  shall 
we  say  of  it.?  We  cannot  call  it  a  disease;  for,  a 
disease  is  what  you  think  that  you  have,  but  a  worm 
is  what  you  know  that  you  have  not.  What,  in  the 
name  of  Christian  Science,  are  we  to  call  it  ?  If  my 
patient  were  a  Scientist,  what  place  would  she  give 


74  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

it  in  relation  to  Mind,  Man,  Mortal  Mind,  and 
Matter  ? 

Let  us  leave  worms,  and  come  to  germs.  As 
worms  are  real,  so  are  germs.  They  have  Life: 
more  than  that,  many  kinds  of  germs  are  givers  or 
distributors  of  Life.  Thus,  in  agriculture,  the 
farmer  sets  millions  of  germs,  which  he  calls  nitragiriy 
to  the  roots  of  a  single  cornstalk  or  beanstalk,  to 
make  it  more  fertile.  Again,  in  sanitation,  there  is 
a  method  of  treating  sewage  with  germs,  whereby 
men  obtain  good  drinking-water  from  it.  Again, 
inside  each  of  us,  there  are  millions  of  germs,  per- 
fectly harmless.  Why  should  Christian  Science 
doubt  that  all  such  harmless  or  beneficent  creatures 
are  real ? 

Sometimes,  these  germs  inside  us  go  out  of  bounds, 
and  start  an  — itis.  Are  they,  on  that  account, 
less  real  ?  Surely,  in  Christian  Science,  the  more 
Lively  they  are,  the  more  Reality  should  be  in  them. 
And,  as  they  are  real,  so  the  — itis,  which  is  they  at 
work,  is  real,  although  Christian  Science  may  declare 
that  it  is  mortal  mind  which  produces  heat,  cures  it 
by  abandoning  belief  in  it,  or  "increases  it  to  the 
point  of  self-destruction."  ^^  In  Christian  Science 
it  is  impossible  that  a  boil  should  be  painful;  it  can 
soon  be  cured  by  a  high  attenuation  of  truth. ^® 

As  these  germs  inside  us  are  real,  so  all  germs 
inside  boils,  abscesses,  carbuncles,  and  purulent 
effusions,  are  real:    and  all  germs  of  specific    dis- 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  75 

eases,  such  as  tubercle,  tetanus,  cholera,  diphtheria, 
typhoid,  plague,  Malta  fever,  yellow  fever.  Dis- 
missed by  Christian  Science  as  mere  "beliefs,** 
v^hich  should  be  treated  as  "errors,"  and  put  out 
of  thought,^^  these  germs  live,  in  a  test-tube,  in  small 
inoculated  animals,  in  us,  in  the  soil,  in  the  water- 
supply,  in  the  air;  they  multiply,  wherever  they 
happen  to  be;  they  can  be  shifted  from  test-tubes  to 
bodies,  and  back  again;  can  be  cultivated,  made 
weaker,  made  stronger,  handled  and  calculated  and 
turned  this  way  and  that.  Thousands  of  them,  in 
the  scratch  of  a  needle  which  has  touched  a  frag- 
ment of  infective  tissue :  and  in  each  of  them  life, 
and  the  power  to  reproduce  its  kind.  That  they  are 
small,  does  not  affect  their  reality:  and,  as  real 
mountains  are  built  of  real  particles,  so  real  diseases 
are  built  of  real  germs.  For,  the  germs  are  the 
disease.     What  they  do,  it  is. 

Christian  Science  says  of  contagion :  — 

We  weep  because  others  weep,  we  yawn  because  they  yawn, 
and  we  have  smallpox  because  others  have  it;  but  mortal  mind,  not 
matter,  contains  and  carries  the  infection.  .  .  .  Since  it  is  a  law 
of  mortal  mind,  that  certain  diseases  should  be  regarded  as  con- 
tagious, this  law  obtains  credit  through  association,  calling  up  the 
fear  that  creates  the  image  of  disease,  and  its  consequent  manifes- 
tation in  the  body.  If  a  child  is  exposed  to  contagion  or  infection, 
the  mother  is  frightened,  and  says  **My  child  will  be  sick."  The 
law  of  mortal  mind,  and  her  own  fears,  govern  her  child  more  than 
the  child's  mind  governs  itself,  and  produce  the  very  results  which 
might  have  been  prevented  through  the  opposite  understanding.*® 


76  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

The  same  is  true  of  the  amoeboid  parasites  of  the 
blood,  which  are,  after  their  kind,  malaria,  dysentery, 
sleeping  sickness,  and  so  on. 

The  life  of  the  body,  contending  against  the  life 
of  such  inmates,  brews  in  the  body  antidotes  against 
their  poisons,  antitoxins  against  their  toxins.  These 
antitoxins,  brewed  in  us,  or  in  a  horse  for  us,  are 
Life  at  the  top  of  its  bent,  in  the  very  act  and  moment 
of  saving  Life. 

If  a  dose  of  poison  is  swallowed  through  mistake,  and  the  pa- 
tient dies,  even  though  physician  and  patient  are  expecting  favour- 
able results,  does  human  belief,  you  ask,  cause  this  death  ?  Even 
so;  and  as  directly  as  if  the  poison  had  been  intentionally  taken. 
In  such  cases,  a  few  persons  believe  the  potion  swallowed  by  the 
patient  to  be  harmless;  but  the  vast  majority  of  mankind,  though 
they  know  nothing  of  this  particular  case  and  this  special  person, 
believe  the  arsenic,  the  strychnine,  or  whatever  the  drug  used,  to 
be  poisonous,  for  it  has  been  set  down  as  a  poison  by  mortal  mind. 
The  consequence  is,  that  the  result  is  controlled  by  the  majority 
of  opinions  outside,  not  by  the  infinitesimal  minority  of  opinions 
in  the  sick-chamber.^® 

From  toxins,  it  is  but  a  step  to  other  poisons. 
The  action  of  an  overdose  of  strychnine,  for  example, 
resembles  the  action  of  the  toxin  of  tetanus.  The 
two  poisons  pick  out,  for  attack,  the  same  cells  of 
the  central  nervous  system.  Of  course,  I  agree  with 
Christian  Science,  that  matter  cannot  feel  pain: 
I  am  only  saying  that  an  overdose  of  strychnine  acts 
like  a  dose  of  tetanus-toxin.  Action  is  Relation 
and  Relation  is  Reality:   therefore,  strychnine  does 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  77 

really  act.  But  Christian  Science  says  that  death, 
from  an  overdose  of  strychnine,  is  "a  result  con- 
trolled by  the  majority  of  opinions  outside  the  sick- 
chamber."  ^^  That  is  how  madmen  talk :  they  say 
that  somebody,  outside  the  asylum,  is  mixing 
pounded  glass  with  their  food,  or  destroying  them 
with   malicious   animal   magnetism. 

As  the  infective  diseases  are  real,  so  are  all  dis- 
eases. If  a  nodule  of  tubercle  be  real,  so  is  a  nodule 
of  cancer:  if  a  purulent  effusion  be  real,  so  is  a 
non-purulent  effusion.  Haemorrhages,  tumours,  en- 
largements, are  real,  germs  or  no  germs:  they  are 
part  of  the  reality  of  Life.  Christian  Science,  with 
her  gross  doctrine,  that  Life  is  God,  denies  the  reality 
0/ the  body,  and  localises  reality  in  the  body;  as  if 
reality  were  a  sort  of  juice.  We  have,  for  instance, 
the  well-known  Prayer  for  a  Dyspeptic,  drawn  up 
by  a  Mr.  Hazzard,  who  is,  or  was.  President  of  the 
New  York  School  of  Primitive  and  Practical  Chris- 
tian Science.  It  is  old  now;  and  I  give  it,  not  as  a 
fair  specimen  of  Christian  Science  in  London  to- 
day, but  as  an  example,  what  comes  of  saying  that 
Life  is  God.  I  have  shortened  it,  and  calmed  the 
raging  of  its  type :  — 

Holy  Reality,  Blessed  Reality,  believing  that  Thou  art  every- 
where present,  we  believe  that  Thou  art  in  this  patient's  stomach, 
in  every  fibre,  in  every  cell,  in  every  atom,  that  Thou  art  the  sole, 
only  Reality  of  that  stomach.  Heavenly,  Holy  Reality,  Thou 
art  not  sick,  and  therefore  nothing  in  this  universe  was  ever  sick, 


78  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

is  now  sick,  or  can  be  sick.  We  know,  Father  and  Mother  of  us  all, 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  really  diseased  stomach;  that  the 
disease  is  the  Carnal  Mortal  Mind  given  over  to  the  World,  the 
Flesh,  and  the  Devil ;  that  the  mortal  mind  is  a  twist,  a  distortion, 
a  false  attitude,  the  HARMATIA  *  of  Thought.  Help  us  to  stoutly 
affirm,  with  our  hand  in  your  hand,  with  our  eyes  fixed  on  Thee, 
that  we  never  had  Dyspepsia,  that  we  will  never  have  Dyspepsia, 
that  there  is  no  such  thing,  that  there  never  was  any  such  thing, 
that  there  never  will  be  any  such  thing.     Amen. 

This  prayer  can  do  no  harm  in  cases  of  hypo- 
chondriasis, nervous  dislike  of  food,  and  perversity 
of  appetite.  Only,  it  is  v^orse  than  useless  for  cases 
of  pyloric  obstruction,  gastric  ulcer,  dilatation,  con- 
genital malformation,  or  cancer  of  the  stomach. 
But  Christian  Science  w^ould  treat,  on  Mr.  Hazzard's 
lines,  all  these  latter  cases. 

Christian  Science  finds  that  insanity  "yields  more 
naturally  than  most  diseases  to  the  salutary  action 
of  truth,  which  counteracts  error."  Her  method  of 
cure  is  the  same  as  in  other  diseases;  the  use  of 
this  argument:  "the  impossibility  that  matter, 
brain,  can  control  or  derange  mind,  can  suffer  or 
cause  suffering;  also  the  fact  that  Truth  can  destroy 
all  error." 


Note  on  "Animal  Magnetism" 


[Mr.  Lyman  Powell  gives  the  following  account  of  the  fear  which 
is,  or  was,  in  Christian  Science,  of  hostile  animal  magnetism. 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  lately  (August  14,  1907)  declared  that  she  does 

*  This  word  probably  is  intended  for  hamartiay  the  Greek 
word  for  sin. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  79 

not  hold  this  belief:  but,  as  Mr.  Powell  says,  this  declaration  does 
not  alter  the  evidences  of  the  past.] 

Many  pages  in  Science  and  Health  are  at  first  difficult  to 
understand.  Those  which  deal  with  animal  magnetism  are 
difficult  also  at  last  to  understand.  Quimby  has  no  responsibility 
for  them.  Had  Mrs.  Eddy  possessed  the  knowledge  she  thought 
she  had  of  Quimby,  she  would  never,  as  one  of  her  old  students 
writes  me,  have  fallen  into  such  an  impossible  conception.  Had 
she  even  caught  Quimby's  wholesome  spirit,  she  could  never  have 
conjured-up  such  a  morbid  explanation  of  her  break  with  Kennedy 
and  SpofFord,  or  dignified  it  into  an  actual  doctrine  in  the  third 
edition  of  her  text-book.  A  student  ventured  once  to  suggest: 
"  Don't  you  think  the  time  has  come  to  speak  less  of  animal  mag- 
netism?" Whereat  Mrs.  Eddy  sprang  up  from  her  desk,  and 
clapped  her  hands  together,  sharply  crying,  "Leave  me  at  once." 

There  seems  to  be  no  adequate  explanation  of  the  strange  hold 
her  animal  magnetism  seems  to  have  had  on  her.  It  might  be 
called  an  obsession.  Every  religious  leader  is  apt  at  some  time 
to  personalise  the  evil  of  the  world.  Nothing  else  will  serve  so 
many  purposes.  Years  ago  Mrs.  Eddy  found  her  devil.  Her 
literary  adviser  in  the  eighties  said,  "Animal  magnetism  is  her 
devil."  Sometimes  she  calls  it  hypnotism,  mesmerism,  mortal 
mind,  malicious  animal  magnetism,  as  well  as  animal  magnetism : 
and  in  her  private  correspondence  she  familiarly  refers  to  it  as 
M.A.M. 

The  clearest  account  of  it  is  given  under  the  heading  of  "Mortal 
Mind."  She  says  it  has  no  real  existence;  it  is  nothing,  while 
claiming  to  be  something.  And  yet  she  admits  it  to  be  "  an  auto- 
crat," and  "the  cause  of  organic  disease."  She  says  it  "changes 
order  into  discord,"  "confers  power  on  drugs,"  "produces  false 
beliefs,"  "convulses  matter,"  "counterfeits  divine  justice,"  "creates 
its  own  conditions,"  "fills  creation  full  of  nameless  children," 
"fills  man  with  pain,"  "impresses  its  thoughts  on  body,"  "makes 
Spirit  nothing,"  "rules  all  that  is  mortal,"  "transfers  its  fears 


8o  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

to  other  minds,"  and  "  seeks  to  kill  his  fellow-mortals,  morally  and 
physically." 

If  Mortal  Mind  does  things  so  terrible,  no  wonder  Mrs.  Eddy 
calls  it  Satan.  No  wonder  she  has  spent  her  life  in  mortal  terror 
of  it.  No  wonder  she  once  wrote  a  student,  who,  she  feared,  was 
criticising  her,  "Won't  you  exercise  reason  and  let  me  live,  or  will 
you  kill  me  ?  Your  mind  is  just  what  has  brought  on  my  relapse." 
No  wonder  she  could  bring  herself,  a  few  years  later,  to  believe 
that  her  husband  had  been  killed  by  "arsenical  poison  mentally 
administered,"  and  that  even  a  printing-press  might  be  put  out  of 
order  by  M.A.M.  No  wonder  her  adopted  son.  Dr.  Foster-Eddy, 
tells  of  days  as  dark  and  nights  as  black  as  those  painted  by  Poe, 
when  the  unhappy  woman  fancied  that  evil  minds  were  assailing 
her  to  her  confusion  and  distress.  No  wonder  that  as  recently  as 
1900  she  wrote  to  him,  "You  are  better  removed  from  M.A.M.  in 
Boston."  No  wonder  that  her  true  son  came  away  from  his  last 
meeting  with  her,  a  few  months  ago,  impressed  with  the  effect  of 
the  terrible  obsession  on  her  mind  and  soul,  and  has  since  had  evi- 
dence of  her  belief  that  M.A.M.  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  late  law- 
suit, and  of  the  criticism  to  which  she  is  in  her  old  age  exposed. 

Stranger  than  Mrs.  Eddy's  situation  is  that  of  many  of  her 
followers  who  are  troubled  by  the  same  obsession.  I  have  talked 
with  Christian  Scientists,  great  and  small,  who  seem  more  certain 
of  the  personality  of  M.A.M.  than  of  the  personality  of  God. 
I  know  directly,  and  I  know  of,  good  people  who  charge  the  tar- 
diness of  their  recovery  to  the  M.A.M.  which  they  are  sure  that 
unbelievers  send  their  way.  Judge  Clarkson  of  Omaha,  Ne- 
braska, left  Christian  Science  because  its  M.A.M.  became  intoler- 
able. If  Christian  Science  is  to  grow  after  Mrs.  Eddy's  death, 
her  demonology,  which  is  all  her  own  and  not  Quimby's,  must  die 
with  her.  Otherwise  it  will  drag  the  entire  system  up  before  that 
bar  which  no  obsession  ever  yet  has  faced  and  lived,  the  bar  of 
the  universal  sense  of  humour. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  8i 


V 
THE  REALITY  OF   PAIN 

We  all  know  what  we  mean  by  Pain.  Who  should 
know  that,  if  not  we,  who  give  it  to  our  mothers 
before  we  can  feel  it  for  ourselves  ?  Pain  is  tooth- 
ache, ear-ache,  and  other  aches.  It  is  an  act  of  Self, 
a  part  of  Life.  We  might  say,  in  the  style  of 
Christian  Science,  that  Pain  denies  Death.  There 
is  no  Pain  in  Death,  and  no  Death  in  Pain.  There 
will  be,  for  most  of  us,  pain  before  death,  in  the 
course  of  our  last  illness :  then,  we  shall  be  out  of 
pain:  "We  cease  to  die,  by  dying." 

Our  nerves  and  our  brains  do  not  feel  pain:  it 
is  we,  who  feel  pain.  We  are  sensitive,  they  are 
sensory.  And,  of  course,  one  sense,  or  act,  or 
habit,  of  the  body,  is  just  as  real  as  another.  The 
reality  is  the  same,  in  pain  and  in  pleasure.  If 
bodily  disease  be  imaginary,  so  is  bodily  ease:  if 
discomfort  be  illusory,  so  is  comfort.  Here  we 
are  back  at  the  doctrine,  "Disease,  sin,  evil,  death, 
deny  good,  omnipotent  God,  Life"  ^:  whereas  it  is 
not  disease  and  death  that  deny  God,  but  Christian 
Science  that  denying  them  denies  God. 

And  the  animals,  what  of  them  ?     She  left  their 


82  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

lives  out  of  her  world :  but  what  of  their  pains  ? 
Does  it  hurt  them,  to  be  thrashed,  or  to  be  mutilated  ? 
Is  the  death  of  a  horse,  from  tetanus,  a  result  con- 
trolled by  the  majority  of  opinions  outside  the  stables  ? 
Shall  we  put  the  poor  creature  out  of  its  misery  ? 
Or  shall  we  give  it  chloroform,  which  is  drugging, 
which  is  un-Christian  ?  Shall  we  lay  the  blame  on 
ourselves,  that  we  have  educated  equine  mind  too 
far  in  physiology  ?  Or  shall  we  sit  by  the  side  of 
this  horse,  and  voice  the  Truth,  that  the  allness  of 
Deity  is  His  oneness  ? 

The  Daily  Telegraph,  August  15,  1907,  reports 
an  interview  with  Mr.  Frederick  Dixon,  head  of  the 
Publication  Committee  of  Christian  Scientists  in 
London.  He  is  questioned  as  to  the  sufferings  of 
animals,  and  he  answers,  "Animals,  like  human 
beings,  are  suffering  from  the  belief  in  the  power  of 
evil  which  constitutes  mortal  mind :  and  can  be,  and 
are  being,  healed  in  the  same  way."  Millions  of 
animals,  every  day,  all  over  the  world,  are  suffering, 
and  miUions  of  millions  have  suffered,  ages  before 
we  came  here,  from  a  false  belief,  which  constitutes  a 
dream,  not  in  them,  but  in  us :  and  can  be,  and  are 
being,  healed  in  the  same  way.  The  whole  earth 
shakes  with  the  pain  of  animals,  and  is  dark  with 
the  pain  of  their  pain:  but  Mr.  Dixon  says  that 
they  are  suffering  from  the  results  of  mortal  mind. 

Babies  next,  after  animals.  Heaven  defend  all 
babies  born  in  Christian  Science,     (i)  Because  their 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  S^ 

mothers  are  apt  to  say,  "I  will  have  neither  doctor 
nor  nurse  to  attend  me  in  my  confinement.  I  will 
overcome  the  occasion  by  Mind.  Perfect  harmony 
shall  prevail.  There  shall  be  a  pleasing  demonstra- 
tion of  the  native  nothingness  of  Matter."  But  the 
baby  would  prefer  to  have  a  nurse  and  a  doctor  in 
attendance.  (2)  Because  Christian  Science  thinks  it 
absurd  to  wash  a  baby,  once  a  day,  all  over.  "The 
daily  ablutions  of  an  infant  are  no  more  natural  or 
necessary  than  would  be  the  process  of  taking  a  fish 
out  of  water  every  day  and  covering  it  with  dirt,  in 
order  to  make  it  thrive  more  vigorously  thereafter 
in  its  native  element."  ^  (3)  Because,  when  a  baby 
drinks  out  of  the  wrong  bottle,  as  babies  will,  its 
parents  are  apt  to  voice  the  Truth,  instead  of  sending 
for  the  doctor.  (4)  Because  a  baby  cannot  explain 
where  the  pain  is;  and  may  be  crying  under  the 
unkindness  of  a  safety-pin  broken  loose,  which  is  a 
"surgical  case,"  while  its  mother  is  testifying  to  the 
unreality  of  colic.  (5)  Because,  in  Christian  Science, 
the  treatment  is  the  better  for  some  response  from  the 
patient.  "Christian  Science  demonstrates  that  the 
patient  who  pays  whatever  he  is  able  to  pay  for  being 
healed  is  more  apt  to  recover  than  he  who  withholds 
a  slight  equivalent  for  health."  ^  That  is  what  the 
Founder  says.*     And  I  was  told,  by  a  practitioner, 

*  The  usual  charge  for  treatment  is  only  four  shillings  a  time, 
or  a  guinea  a  week.  I  do  not  believe  that  heavy  charges  are 
ever  made,  and  I  do  not  doubt  that  many  cases  are  treated  with- 


84  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

"The  patients  work  better  if  they  bring  something, 
if  they  make  some  sacrifice."  But  the  baby  brings 
nothing,  is  less  "responsive"  than  a  dog.  Itself  is 
the  sacrifice  to  Christian  Science. 

Next,  the  rest  of  us.  Think  what  we  will  of  pain, 
we  all  know  that  we  have  pain  without  disease,  and 
disease  without  pain.  We  come  across  the  one, 
without  the  other,  every  day  of  our  lives :  — 

I.  A  knock  on  the  elbow,  over  the  ulnar  nerve, 
causes  pain  in  the  little  finger,  without  disease.  The 
trunk  of  the  nerve  has  been  tapped,  like  a  telegraph 
wire,  and  a  message  goes  up  it,  purporting  to  come 
from  the  little  finger,  where  the  nerve  has  a  terminal 
station. 

out  charge.  Still,  Christian  Scientists  are  not  indigent:  "and 
their  comfortable  fortunes  are  acquired  by  healing  mankind, 
morally,  physically,  spiritually."  (Preface  to  Misc.  Writings.) 
I  suppose  that  the  absent  treatment  may  be  applied  to  more 
than  one  patient  at  a  time:  I  see  no  added  absurdity  in  that. 
A  writer  in  the  Daily  Telegraph,  August  24,  1907,  tells  how  three 
persons  conspired  to  get  absent  treatment,  at  one  time,  from  one 
practitioner.  "They  were  called  up,  one  after  the  other,  by  tele- 
phone, at  the  same  hour  and  within  a  few  minutes,  and  notified 
that  the  treatment  was  about  to  begin,  in  order  that  they  might 
put  themselves  into  a  receptive  condition."  Why  not?  Why 
should  not  self-suggestion  be  set  going  in  fifty  people,  all  at  the 
same  time,  by  fifty  telephones .?  A  similar  story  is  told  by  Dr. 
Oughton,  in  his  Crazes,  Credulities,  and  Christian  Science  (E.  H. 
Colegrove,  Chicago,  1901).  Absent  treatment  had  been  arranged 
for  a  case.  The  healer  forgot  to  give  it :  but  the  rehef  came  just 
as  usual. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  85 

2.  A  decaying  tooth,  till  the  disease  reaches  the 
nerve,  is  painless.  Millions  of  germs  excavate  the 
tooth,  but  there  is  no  more  pain  than  if  it  were  a 
slate-quarry. 

3.  Cancer,  in  its  early  stages,  is  painless.  Not  a 
day  passes,  but  a  doctor,  somewhere,  is  saying  to  a 
patient,  "Why  did  you  let  it  go  on  so  long.f*"  and 
is  told,  "Because  it  didn't  give  me  any  pain."  This 
cruel  absence  of  pain,  till  the  disease  is  far  advanced, 
is  just  what  makes  it  so  grave. 

4.  Tubercular  glands  are  painless,  unless  or  until 
they  suppurate. 

5.  Our  Asylums  for  the  Blind,  and  for  the  Deaf 
and  Dumb,  are  crowded  with  people  hopelessly 
blind,  or  deaf,  or  both,  from  inherited  disease,  by 
the  fault  of  their  parents.  Many  of  these  blind, 
and  all  of  these  deaf-mutes,  never  had,  or  have,  or 
will  have,  a  moment's  pain :  their  senses  were  slowly 
and  painlessly  blotted  out. 

6.  Our  Cripples'  Homes  contain  I  know  not  how 
many  cases  of  infantile  paralysis.  Years  ago,  the 
child  was  ill,  in  a  vague  way,  for  a  few  days;  and 
ever  since  has  been  paralysed,  without  pain. 

7.  Shock,  in  a  very  severe  injury,  prevents  pain. 
A  man,  with  his  legs  smashed  to  bits  by  a  railway 
accident,  may  be  free  of  all  pain :  so  may  a  child, 
burned  all  over,  and  bound  to  die  in  a  day  or  two. 

Christian  Science  tends  to  confound  pain  with 
disease.     I  had  a  lesson,  a  few  months  ago,  which  I 


86  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

shall  never  forget.  I  heard  a  lady,  at  a  testimony- 
meeting,  make  this  statement,  that  she  knew  of  a 
case  of  cancer  of  the  breast,  where  the  disease  had 
recurred  after  operation,  and  had  been  healed  by 
Christian  Science.  After  the  meeting,  I  asked  her 
about  this  case.  I  found  that  she  knew  no  more 
than  this,  that  an  extensive  wound  had  healed  under 
an  aseptic  dressing,  and  that  all  pain  had  gone.  She 
knew  that,  and  there  her  knowledge  stopped.  There 
is  worse  than  ignorance  in  such  testimony :  there  is 
the  loss  of  the  sense  of  responsibility.  All  of  us,  I 
suppose,  have  lost  relatives  and  friends  by  that 
disease.  Is  it  a  light  offence,  to  proclaim  that  it  can 
be  healed  by  Christian  Science  ? 

Or  take,  to  illustrate  pain  and  disease,  an  ordinary 
case  of  stone.  So  long  as  the  stone  is  in  the  kidney, 
it  may  cause  much  pain,  or  occasional  pain,  or 
practically  none.  On  its  way  into  the  bladder,  it 
may  cause  horrible  pain.  Then,  the  patient  is  com- 
fortable again,  unless  or  until  the  stone  sets  up 
trouble  in  the  bladder.  Finally,  he  gets  rid  of  the 
stone,  either  by  nature  (with  or  without  more  pain), 
or,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  by  surgery.  Chris- 
tian Science  advises  her  practitioners  to  call  a  disease 
by  name,  mentally  and  silently,  as  they  argue  against 
it.*  By  what  name  would  they  call  this  disease  ? 
Doubtless  they  would  call  it  "colic,"  meaning 
thereby  intestinal,  not  renal,  colic;  and  would  claim 
the  natural  cessation  of  the  horrible  pain  as  one  of 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  87 

their  healings;    and  would  not  think  of  the  stone, 
but  would  leave  it  in  the  bladder. 

But  why  should  she  want  to  call  diseases  by  their 
names  ?  For  she  is  vehemently  opposed,  and  no 
wonder,  to  the  classification  of  diseases:  and  you 
cannot  name  diseases  till  you  have  classified  them. 
She  gives  this  warning :  — 

Diseases  not  to  be  Classified 

Should  all  cases  of  organic  disease  be  treated  by  a  regular  prac- 
titioner, and  the  Christian  Scientist  try  his  hand  only  on  cases  of 
hysteria,  hypochondria,  and  hallucination  .?  One  disease  is  not 
more  real  than  another.  All  disease  is  the  result  of  education,* 
and  can  carry  its  ill-effects  no  farther  than  mortal  mind  maps  out 
the  way.  .  .  .  Truth  handles  the  most  malignant  contagion  f 
with  perfect  assurance.^  Human  mind  produces  what  is  termed 
organic  disease,  as  certainly  as  it  produces  hysteria.  I  have  dem- 
onstrated this  beyond  all  cavil. 

But  the  classification  of  diseases  has  nothing  to 
do  with  the  words  "organic"  and  "functional." 
These  are  working  words,  useful  in  practice.  Every 
year,  as  the  methods  of  our  expert  pathologists  grow 
finer,  the  kingdom  of  organic  is  extended,  and  the 
kingdom  oi  functional  is  absorbed,  bit  by  bit.  In- 
sanity, for  example,  and  all  diseases  of  the  spinal 

*  I.e.  Diseases  exist  only  in  the  minds  of  those  who  have  been 
taught  to  believe  in  them. 

t  Here  Christian  Science  forgets  her  own  teaching.  If  mortal 
mind,  not  matter,  contains  and  carries  the  infection,  how  can  one 
contagion  be  more  malignant  than  another? 


88  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

cord,  tend  steadily  toward  organic,  and  away  from 
functional. 

Still,  Christian  Science  is  angry  if  we  tell  her  to 
try  her  hand  only  on  cases  of  hysteria,  hypochondria, 
and  hallucination.  She  will  not  be  content,  even 
though  they  be  alliterative,  and  she  loves  allitera- 
tion. She  prefers  cases  of  organic  disease,  the  very 
worst,  the  most  sensational  cases.  And,  of  course, 
we  shall  all  agree  with  her  that  one  disease  is  not 
more  real  than  another.  A  case  of  hysteria,  hypo^V, 
chondriasis,  or  delirium  tremens,  is  just  as  real  as  aj  * 
case  of  aneurysm,  spinal  caries,  or  compound  fracture. 
Only,  the  hysterical  and  hypochondriac  are  apt 
to  imagine  that  they  have  diseases  which  they  have 
not.  The  imagination  is  real,  but  the  diseases  are 
imaginary. 

Many  patients,  who  would  not  go  so  far  as  to 
imagine  diseases,  yet  exaggerate  and  over-emphasise 
unimportant  aches  and  pains,  count  and  recount  and 
recall  them,  and  add,  to  whatever  may  be  the  matter, 
a  host  of  extra  sensations  and  enfeeblements  which 
are  not  part  of  the  original  malady.  A  few  patients, 
the  worst  cases  of  "  hysteria,"  go  further  than  to 
imagine,  and  so  far  as  to  feign,  diseases;  even,  by 
fraud,  to  exhibit  the  signs  of  diseases.  They  starve 
themselves,  burn  their  own  skins,  run  needles  into 
their  bodies,  tamper  with  their  internal  organs,  paint 
their  faces  to  look  ill,  raise  the  thermometer  to 
incredible  heights,  conjure  up  blood,  imitate  con- 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  89 

vulsions,  wear  spectacles  without  lenses,  play  endless 
tricks,  and  lie,  till  their  own  people  are  sick  to  death 
of  their  lying.  Between  these  two  extremes  is  a 
whole  legion  of  cases :  and,  of  course,  there  is  a 
great  quantity  of  books  concerned  with  these  inter- 
mediate cases.  Let  us  take  one,  and  no  more:  not 
a  book  of  Psychology,  but  a  book  of  Practice.  In 
1873,  while  Mrs.  Eddy  was  using,  for  Science  and 
Health,  what  she  had  learned  from  Quimby,  Sir 
James  Paget  was  lecturing,  at  St.  Bartholomew's 
Hospital,  on  "Nervous  Mimicry."  The  following 
passages  are  in  strange  contrast  with  the  doctrines 
and  the  style  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  book. 

A  group  of  cases  of  great  practical  importance  is  distinguished 
by  this  fact:  that  a  nervous  disorder  produces  an  imitation  or 
mimicry  of  organic  local  disease.  In  some  of  these  cases  the 
mimicry  occurs  without  any  substantial  disease  whatever;  in 
others  it  gives  features  of  extreme  severity  to  a  disease  which,  in 
a  normal  condition  of  the  nervous  system,  would  be  trivial  or  unfelt. 

Cases  of  this  kind  are  commonly  included  under  the  name 
Hysteria;  but  in  many  of  them  none  of  the  distinctive  signs  of 
hysteria  are  ever  observed,  and  from  all  of  them  it  is  desirable 
that  this  name  should  be  abolished.  For  it  is  absurdly  derived, 
and,  being  often  used  as  a  term  of  reproach,  is  worse  than  absurd. 
To  call  a  patient  hysterical  is  taken  by  many  people  as  meaning 
that  she  is  silly,  or  shamming,  or  could  get  well  if  she  pleased; 
and  no  doubt  there  are  patients  of  whom  some  of  these  things 
may  fairly  be  said;  but  in  many  more,  hysteria,  especially  in  the 
form  of  an  unwilling  imitation  of  organic  disease,  is  a  serious 
affection,  making  life  useless  and  unhappy  and  not  rarely  shorten- 
ing it. 


90  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

...  Now,  there  is  scarcely  a  local  organic  disease  of  invisible 
Structures,  which  may  not  be  mimicked  by  nervous  disorder. 
You  hear  of  hysteric  cough  and  hysteric  loss  of  voice,  of  hysteric 
dyspepsia  and  paralysis,  of  hysteric  joints  and  spines;  and  there 
is  scarcely  one  of  these  disorders  in  which  the  mimicry  of  real 
diseases  is  not,  sometimes,  so  close  as  to  make  the  diagnosis  very 
difficult. 

...  In  the  great  majority  of  these  cases,  there  is  either  history 
or  present  evidence  of  a  characteristic  nervous  constitution,  such 
as  may  serve  towards  diagnosis.  Some  have  been,  or  are  even  now, 
truly  hysterical ;  subject  to  fits  of  irrepressible  laughing,  crying,  or 
sobbing,  or  to  convulsions  of  various  hysteric  kinds.  But  you  will 
find  nervous  mimicry  in  very  many  who  have  never  been  hysterical. 
In  some  the  sensibility  is  always  too  keen,  whether  for  pain  or  for 
pleasure.  In  these  the  pain  of  an  injury  is  much  more  severe 
than  what  we  may  suppose  to  be  the  proper  average  of  pain  pro- 
ducible by  such  an  injury:  it  lasts  longer;  outliving  all  the  other 
consequences  of  the  injury.  And,  as  to  pleasure,  as  a  patient  said 
to  me,  who  suffered  what  she  called  tortures  from  ordinary  sources 
of  moderate  pain,  "the  pleasure  of  music  is  an  agony."  But  not 
all  have  this  compensation  of  feeling  pleasure  as  keen  as  pain: 
for  many  are  habitually  neuralgic:  they  suffer  with  headaches, 
dartings  in  limbs,  still  more  often  with  spine-aches  and  the  like, 
and  are,  as  one  may  say,  very  painful  persons  —  altogether  hyper- 
neurotic  in  their  relations  to  pain,  but  not  to  pleasure.  .  .  .  One 
of  the  most  frequent  conditions  in  those  in  whom  the  nervous 
mimicries  occur  is  a  singular  readiness  to  be  painfully  fatigued  by 
slight  exertion.  These  nervous  patients  become  utterly  fatigued  in 
even  slight  exercise,  and  their  limbs  and  their  backs,  though  they 
may  look  muscular  and  strong,  ache  horribly  and  very  long. 

...  It  is  seldom  that  patients  with  well-marked  nervous 
mimicries  have  ordinary  minds  —  such  minds  as  we  may  think 
average,  level,  and  evenly  balanced.  You  may,  indeed,  find  among 
them  some  commonplace  people,  with  dull,  low-level  minds;   but. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  91 

in  the  majority,  there  is  something  notable,  good  or  bad,  higher  or 
lower  than  the  average  —  something  outstanding  or  sunken.  This 
something  is,  in  different  cases,  so  various  that  it  is  impossible  to 
classify  or  even  to  enumerate  the  diversities.  But  be  clear  that 
these  patients  are  not  all  silly  or  fraudulent.  Nothing  can  be  more 
mischievous  than  a  belief  that  mimicry  of  organic  disease  is  to  be 
found  only  or  chiefly  in  the  silly,  selfish  girls  among  whom  it  is 
commonly  supposed  that  hysteria  is  rife  or  an  almost  natural  state. 
It  would  be  safer  for  you  to  believe  that  you  are  likely  to  meet  with 
it  among  the  very  good,  the  very  wise,  and  the  most  accomplished 
women.  But  it  will  be  safest  if  you  believe  only  that,  in  any  case 
of  doubt  whether  a  local  disease  be  organic  or  nervous,  it  adds 
something  to  the  probability  of  its  being  nervous  if  the  patient  has 
a  very  unusual  mental  character,  especially  if  it  be  unusual  in  the 
predominance  of  its  emotional  part;  so  that  under  emotion,  or 
with  distracted  attention,  many  things  can  be  done  or  borne  which, 
in  the  quieter  mental  state,  are  felt  as  if  impossible  or  intolerable. 
And  this  probability  of  mimic  rather  than  real  disease  will  be 
much  increased  if  the  symptoms  seemed  to  follow  any  great  or 
prolonged  mental  tension,  or  if  the  patient's  mind  be  set,  in  much 
more  than  the  ordinary  degree,  upon  the  real  or  supposed  disease. 
In  all  the  well-marked  cases  of  nervous  mimicry,  and  in  the  less 
marked  in  only  a  less  degree,  the  malady  determines  the  general 
current  of  thought,  and  often  of  the  whole  life.  Egotism  has  its 
keenest  life  at  and  about  the  supposed  seat  of  disease.  If  the  mal- 
ady be  not  always  uppermost  in  the  thoughts,  it  seems  always  in 
an  undercurrent,  rising  at  every  interval  between  the  distractions 
of  work  or  play. 

.  .  .  The  contrast  of  the  mental  states  of  those  who  have  real 
and  those  who  have  imitated  local  diseases  is  often  very  striking  and 
of  great  help  in  diagnosis.  Few  patients  with  real  hip-disease 
or  real  spinal  disease,  for  instance,  think  half  so  much  about  their 
ailments  as  they  do  whose  nervous  systems  imitate  those  diseases* 
In   this   egotism  they  resemble  hypochondriacs;    yet  commonly 


92  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

with  a  great  mental  difference,  in  that  those  with  nervous  mimicry 
are  not  distressed  with  constant  forebodings  of  greater  mischief; 
rather,  they  are  content  and  often  almost  happy  in  their  afflictions. 
While  the  hypochondriacs  are  in  a  panic  on  account  of  some  trivial 
aching,  the  nervous  mimics  will  talk  of  their  agonies  with  calm  or 
smiling  faces,  or  with  half-closed,  quivering  eyelids;  some  seem 
proud  in  the  immensity  of  their  ailments;  in  some,  there  seems  an 
unbounded  capacity  for  the  enjoyment  of  suffering. 

This  egotism  in  relation  to  the  imitated  diseases  gives  to  many 
patients  an  appearance  of  great  wilfulness.  Some,  indeed,  are 
very  strong-willed;  some  are  so  for  all  the  good  designs  in  which 
they  engage,  and  some  with  a  thorough  self-service.  But  strong 
will  is,  I  think,  less  common  among  these  patients  than  is  a  want  of 
will.  Sometimes  there  is  a  general  feebleness  of  will :  the  patients 
can  do  nothing  for  themselves;  can  trust  themselves  in  nothing; 
but  commit  themselves  to  some  one  with  a  stronger  will  and  an 
appearance,  if  not  a  reality,  of  more  knowledge.  Hence,  among 
these  patients  are  the  most  numerous  subjects  of  mesmerism, 
spiritualism,  and  the  other  supposed  forces  of  which  the  chief 
evidence  is  the  power  of  a  strong  will  over  a  weak  one.  But  more 
often  you  will  find  a  feebleness  or  complete  negation  of  will  in  ref- 
erence to  the  supposed  seat  of  disease,  while  towards  other  things 
the  will  is  strong  enough.  You  may  find  the  strangest  inconsist- 
encies in  this  respect.  A  man  who  has  intellect  and  will  enough  to 
manage  a  great  business,  or  to  travel  with  much  inconvenience  and 
write  clever  books,  cannot  will  to  endure  sitting  upright  for  ten 
minutes,  or  cannot  distract  his  attention  enough  to  be  indifferent  to 
an  unmeaning  ache  in  his  back.  A  girl  who  has  will  enough  in  other 
things  to  rule  the  house  has  yet  not  will  enough  in  regard  to  her 
limbs  to  walk  a  step  with  them>  though  they  are  as  muscular  as  ever 
in  her  life.  She  says,  as  all  such  patients  do,  **I  cannot";  it  looks 
like  "I  will  not";  but  it  is  *'I  cannot  will." 

I  think  it  is  to  this  same  weakness  of  will  that  we  may  attribute 
other  things  often  observed  in  the  worst  cases  of  nervous  mimicry. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  93 

especially  the  disposition  of  the  patients  to  imitate  or  assume 
symptoms  of  disease  that  they  have  seen  or  heard  of,  such  as  the 
deformities  of  diseased  joints,  the  lameness  or  paralysis  associated 
with  spine  disease,  and  the  supposed  distinctive  pains  of  cancer. 
No  doubt  there  is  sometimes  intentional  fraud  and  lying  in  these 
cases;  but  in  many  more  I  think  you  may  be  sure  that  patients 
do  not  study  the  imitation  or  deliberately  determine  to  practise 
it.  Rather  they  are,  in  respect  of  will,  like  children,  who  almost 
involuntarily  imitate  diseases. 

.  .  .  Some  mimicries  are  essentially  mental ;  such,  for  instance, 
as  those  in  which  patients,  out  of  mere  fear  and  keen  attention, 
acquire  the  pains  of  cancer,  and  locali  e  them  in  healthy  parts; 
and  in  nearly  all  mimicries  a  mental  influence  may  be  discerned. 
.  .  .  But  in  some  mimicries  it  is  hard  to  discern  any  mental  in- 
fluence at  all.  Some  are  imitations  of  diseases  very  far  from  mental 
association  —  in  the  cases,  for  example,  of  intestinal  distention, 
constipation  of  many  days*  duration,  constant  vomiting  and  in- 
ability to  digest  food,  rapid  heart-action  with  slow  breathing,  largely 
pulsating  arteries,  and  phantom-tumours.  Some  are  found  in 
commonplace,  ignorant,  and  slow-minded  people  who  never  sav/ 
or  heard  of  the  diseases  imitated  in  them.  Some  occur  in  children 
who  could  neither  imagine  nor  act  what  they  tell  and  show. 

.  .  .  Among  the  relatives  of  those  with  nervous  mimicry,  it  is 
common  to  find  cases  of  mental  insanity,  extreme  "nervousness" 
and  eccentricity,  stuttering,  convulsive  and  emotional  hysteria, 
various  neuralgiae,  extremes  of  mental  character  whether  good 
or  bad,  and  sometimes  (but  I  think  less  frequently)  epilepsy  and 
paraplegia. 

.  .  .  You  may  be  sure  that  nervous  mimicry  is  most  frequent 
in  young  women  of  the  more  cultivated  classes;  but  you  may 
be  equally  sure  that  it  is  not  so  rare  among  men,  or  children,  or 
at  any  age,  or  in  any  social  condition,  as  to  make  it  unreasonable 
to  suspect  it  in  any  case  of  obscure  disease.  You  had  better  not 
let  any  such  case  pass  without  asking  yourself,  Is  this  disease,  or 


94  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

any  part  of  it,  mimicry  ?  Some  of  the  worst  cases  of  mimicry 
of  disease  of  the  spine  and  pelvis  that  I  have  ever  seen  have  been  in 
men  and  women  of  mature  age;  some  of  the  worst  of  joints  in 
young  children ;   some  of  the  worst  of  all  kinds  in  poor  people. 

.  .  .  Among  the  chief  exciting  causes  of  nervous  mimicry 
are  sudden  mental  distresses,  emotion,  disappointment,  long  anx- 
ieties, or  exhaustion  by  overwork.  I  saw  one  day  a  young  gentle- 
man who  had  been  overworking  for  a  civil  service  examination. 
After  a  three  hours*  mathematical  cram  he  fainted,  and  when  he 
rallied  had  a  very  close  mimicry  of  paralysis,  on  both  sides  of  the 
body,  which  lasted  many  weeks.  On  the  same  day,  I  saw  a  gentle- 
man who  had  been  greatly  overworked  in  a  prosperous  business. 
He  kicked  his  great  toe  severely,  and  had  a  mimicry  of  tetanic 
convulsions  in  the  limb,  with  night-panics  and  other  curious  ner- 
vous symptoms,  which  after  a  few  days  were  followed  by  the  sen- 
sations of  spinal  disease  such  as  one  of  his  brothers  died  with. 
...  In  a  case  which  I  do  not  doubt  was  a  nervous  mimicry  of 
hip-joint  disease,  with  limping,  and  with  eversion  and  contraction 
and  some  pain  of  the  thigh,  I  found  that  the  patient's  brother  had 
advanced  true  hip-disease.  ...  In  the  fortnight  following  the 
death  of  the  late  Emperor  Napoleon,  I  was  consulted  by  four  per- 
sons who  described,  as  they  felt,  the  sensations  of  stone. 

.  .  .  More  frequent  probably  than  any  mental  state,  among 
the  exciting  causes  of  nervous  mimicry,  is  injury  of  any  kind, 
especially  of  bones  and  joints.  And  after  injury,  let  me  tell  you, 
nervous  mimicry  is  not  only  more  difficult  to  be  sure  of,  but  harder 
to  cure.  For  there  is  something  tangible  to  appeal  to,  something 
which  would  indeed  be  quite  inadequate  to  explain  any  severe 
symptoms  in  a  person  of  sound  nervous  system,  but  which  the  mind 
and  mimicry  can  invest  with  symptoms  enough  for  even  the  grav- 
est disease. 

These  paragraphs  are  from  the  first  and  second 
lectures.     The   other   four   lectures   are   concerned 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  95 

with  the  special  mimicries  of  joint-disease,  spinal 
disease,  cancer  of  the  breast,  abdominal  tumours, 
and  other  diseases ;  and  with  the  rules  for  diagnosis 
between  real  and  mimic  diseases.  All  six  lectures 
are  of  the  utmost  interest  in  reference  to  the  cases 
that  Christian  Scientists  heal.  At  the  end  of  the 
last  lecture,  speaking  of  treatment,  Paget  says :  — 

But,  perhaps,  the  most  important  part  of  the  treatment  of  these 
cases  is  the  mental  part.  I  have  referred  to  the  infrequency  of 
commonplace  minds  among  the  patients  with  nervous  mimicry 
—  some  being  far  above,  some  far  below,  some  in  various  ways 
divergent  from,  the  ideal  standard  average.  It  would,  probably, 
always  tend  to  the  remedy  of  nervous  mimicry  if  the  mind  could 
be  brought  to  an  average  and  uniform  level,  to  a  just  medium  of 
common  sensibility  and  common  sense.  A  few  excellent  and  wise 
persons  might  be  the  worse  for  such  a  change;  but  for  all  except 
these  the  change  would  be  for  the  better  and  a  chief  step  towards 
recovery. 

Most  of  all,  the  will  needs  education  in  these  cases.  It  needs 
to  be  trained  to  the  cure  of  the  mimicry,  to  the  endurance  of  pain, 
to  the  control  of  movements,  to  the  fixing  of  the  attention  on  any- 
thing rather  than  the  supposed  disease.  And  very  often,  in  the 
worst  cases,  this  training  of  the  will  is  not  possible  unless  the  patient 
be  separated  from  the  persons  and  things  associated  with  the  dis- 
ease. Many  patients  cannot  get  well  at  home.  Some  of  those 
about  them  are  too  sympathetic;  some  too  hard;  some  yield  too 
much  or  too  soon;  none  are  really  helpful;  and  the  patient's 
will  becomes  constantly  more  feeble,  or  more  widely  perverted. 
In  conditions  such  as  these  the  patient  should  live  with  quiet 
sensible  strangers,  who  can  teach  the  will  and  exercise  and  control  it. 

The  effect  of  judicious  education  of  the  will  in  the  worst  cases 
of  nervous  mimicry  is  sometimes  very  striking;  complete  recovery 


96  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

is  not  rare,  especially  in  cases  of  mimic  loss  of  power  in  the  spine  and 
limbs,  and  of  mimic  diseases  of  joints,  and  mimic  gastric  disorder 
and  inability  to  digest.  But  the  teacher  must  be  carefully  chosen ; 
for  among  these  nervous  patients  are  some  who  are  ready  to  become 
the  very  slaves  of  persons  who  have  strong  wills,  or  who  profess  that 
they  are  possessed  of  knowledge  or  authority  that  cannot  or  may 
not  safely  be  resisted.  Thus  it  is  that  the  worst  cases  are  sometimes 
cured  by  the  most  ignorant  persons,  who,  by  the  mere  confidence  of 
their  assertions,  give  confidence  and  will :  but  the  consequences 
of  such  cures  may  be  as  bad  as  the  disease. 

The  following  case  is  a  good  illustration  of  what 
Paget  says  of  the  consequences  of  such  cures.  In 
the  Journal  of  Nervous  and  Mental  Disease,  June 
1 90 1,  p.  342,  there  is  a  very  careful  and  well-reasoned 
essay,  by  Dr.  Smith  Baker,  of  Utica,  New  York, 
on  the  Rationale  of  Subjective  Healing.  The  re- 
sults of  a  narrow,  one-sided  view  of  a  case  may  be 
disastrous,  he  says,  as  in  material  treatment,  so  in 
mental  treatment :   and  he  gives  this  instance :  — 

A  well-educated  and  refined  woman,  aged  twenty-five,  who, 
after  a  slight  injury,  had  suff'ered  for  five  years  with  severe  neuras- 
thenia, and  had  got  no  good  from  doctors  and  surgeons,  **fell  in 
with  *  healers*  of  the  Christian  Scientist  order,  who  faithfully 
tried  their  hand,  and  seemingly  succeeded;  for  she  soon  resumed 
her  work,  and  remained  at  it  for  a  year.  Meanwhile,  however, 
she  slowly  developed  a  typically  characteristic  condition;  namely, 
a  thoroughgoing  dependence  on  her  healers  for  sympathy  and 
support:  on  their  characteristic  publications  for  mental  pabulum; 
and  on  what  she  called  *God*  for  about  everything  else.  As  for 
her  own  selfhood,  it  had  become  quite  swallowed  up  in  the  asso- 
nant phrase  *God  is  all*:  while  a  dark,  thick,  idealistic  phlegm 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  97 

seemed  to  have  invaded  all  her  mental  and  bodily  functions.  Sen- 
sation had  become  hypersensation ;  perception  illusional ;  ideation 
more  or  less  imperative;  attention  narrowed  down  to  an  egoistic 
point;  memory  was  very  poor,  save  for  the  one  set  of  ideas;  will 
had  succumbed  to  'the  higher  will,*  as  she  believed  it;  conduct 
was  so  erratic  as  to  render  her  unfit  for  any  vocation;  while  all 
the  bodily  functions  were  more  or  less  irregular  and  distressing, 
with  energy  and  endurance  reduced  to  simply  a  useless  quantity. 

"At  this  point  she  was  the  most  despairing,  hopeless,  unpromis- 
ing case  it  had  been  my  fortune  to  see  for  some  time.  She  seemed 
to  have  just  life  enough  left  to  feel  all  the  misery,  and  realise  none 
of  the  relief  incident  to  therapeutics,  whether  material  or  mental. 
/  have  been  through  it  ally  she  said.  For  years  the  doctors  had  me 
and  they  failed ;  and  now  the  healers  can  do  nothing  more  for  me; 
and  worse,  I  cannot  get  away  from  them  and  their  teachings  and 
practices.  Night  and  day  my  mind  repeats  their  formulce,  and 
yet  no  good  seems  to  come  from  it.     I  simply  suffer  as  never  before. 

"Evidently  neurasthenic,  evidently  hysteric,  and  born  and. bred 
to  be  just  this,  evidently  blasee  with  therapeutic  fag  and  disgust, 
evidently  an  obsessional  slave  of  the  worst  type.  What  a  problem 
for  insight,  resource,  patience,  and  all  the  rest !  And,  by  all  odds 
worse  than  this,  was  eventually  to  be  found  the  deep  despair  into 
which  she  had  been  lowered,  the  listless  will,  the  imperative  con- 
ception that  would  brook  no  interference  without  mental  pain  of 
a  worse  order,  and  a  deep  feeling  of  poverty  from  which  she  had 
little  hope  of  ever  being  able  to  rescue  herself.  In  fact,  fortune  of 
body,  of  mind,  of  station,  of  purse  had  all  oozed  away  steadily; 
and  what  was  first  acute,  and  then  became  chronic,  had  now  come 
to  be  as  permanent,  seemingly,  as  sin  itself." 

One  could  not  have  a  clearer  picture  of  the  harm 
which  may  be  done  by  Christian  Science.  Now  let 
us  leave  her  faith,  and  come  to  her  works.  She 
heals  the  sick.     What  was  the  matter  with  them  ? 


98  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

Are  we  bound  to  accept  all  that  they  tell  us,  and  all 
that  they  say  that  the  doctor  said  ?  Of  course  we 
are  not.  Many  of  them  are  illiterate,  many  are 
wholly  unable  to  judge  what  happened,  if  anything 
did  happen.  Again  and  again,  they  make  wild 
statements,  worse  than  useless,  and  say  what  is  not 
true.  We  have  nothing  to  do,  here,  with  philosophy 
or  with  religion:  we  are  just  reading  So-and-so's 
description  of  what  was  the  matter  with  him,  and 
how  the  doctor  told  him  that  it  was  very  serious. 
But  who  is  So-and-so,  and  who  was  his  doctor .?  If 
So-and-so  is  a  credulous,  excitable  person,  illogical 
even  to  this  point  that  he  believes  Science  and  Health 
to  be  the  immediate  revelation  of  Infinite  Mind, 
why  should  we  pay  any  attention  to  his  account  of 
his  own  case  ? 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  99 

VI 

TESTIMONIES  OF   HEALING 

There  is  but  one  way  to  get  at  the  truth  about 
a  new  method  of  medical  or  surgical  treatment. 
Every  case  must  be  reported.  Take,  for  example, 
the  operation  of  ovariotomy.  Spencer  Wells,  in 
this  country,  set  himself  to  make  it  safe.  He  re- 
ported every  case;  he  kept  back  nothing.  Every- 
body was  sure  that  he  was  telling  the  whole  truth. 
If  anybody  had  been  able  to  say  that  he  was  publish- 
ing his  successes  but  not  his  failures,  it  would  have 
wrecked  the  work  of  his  life.  Christian  Science 
has  no  such  sense  of  honour:  she  publishes  her 
successes,  and  hides  her  failures. 

Of  course,  her  failures  are  altogether  different 
from  the  failures  and  the  mistakes  of  medical  prac- 
tice. The  doctor  may  make  a  wrong  diagnosis :  she 
makes  none.  The  doctor  may  fall  short  of  perfect 
skill  over  this  or  that  operation :  she  will  contemplate 
simple  abscesses  and  cysts  till  they  burst.  The 
doctor,  examining  an  obscure  case,  may  overlook 
one  or  more  of  many  symptoms :  she  never  examines 
anybody,  but  gives  absent  treatment  *  to  acute  cases 

*  "Science  can  heal  the  sick  who  are  absent  from  their  healers, 
as  well  as  those  present,  since  space  is  no  obstacle  to  Mind.  Im- 
mortal Mind  heals  what  eye  hath  not  seen.'*^  —  S.  &  H.,  p.  179. 


100  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

that  she  has  never  seen.  The  doctor  uses  his  eyes, 
his  ears,  his  nose,  his  hands :  she  is  purposely  bHnd, 
deaf,  inactive:  she  does  nothing,  nor  attempts  any- 
thing. Therefore,  her  blunders  are  such  as  the 
idlest,  youngest,  and  stupidest  medical  student 
would  not  commit:  for  she  never  reads  a  book, 
enters  a  museum,  uses  a  stethoscope,  takes  a  tem- 
perature, or  looks  down  a  microscope.  But,  for 
the  present,  let  us  observe  her  successes,  not  her 
failures.  I  have  put  here  two  hundred  consecutive 
Testimonies  of  Healing,  from  her  weekly  journal, 
the  Christian  Science  Sentinel.  They  are  not  ab- 
solutely consecutive  from  week  to  week;  because 
some  back-numbers  of  the  Sentinel  had  been  re- 
moved from  the  Christian  Science  Reading  Room 
in  this  neighbourhood.  But  they  are  all  recent 
cases,  between  April  and  August,  1908.  Of  course, 
if  the  reader  be  ignorant  of  medicine,  he  or  she  should 
go  over  them  with  the  help  of  a  doctor.  I  have  taken 
them  just  as  they  came.  I  have  left  out  none,  except 
one,  which  has  already  been  quoted;  and  three  or 
four,  not  more,  in  which  the  patient  speaks  of  mental 
improvement  only,  and  says  not  a  word  of  any 
bodily  ailment.  Two  hundred  cases  are  too  many: 
one  hundred  would  suffice.  Yet,  having  got  them 
together,  I  have  let  them  stand;  for  they  repay 
careful  study. 


OF  CHRISTIAK  gCIENCE  i'd^iii^ 

TESTIMONIES   OF   HEALING 

April-August,  1908 

1.  Mrs.  B/s  baby.  Nine  months  old.  "Stomach  and  bowel 
trouble."  Had  been  treated  by  "the  starvation  method,"  and  had 
become  dreadfully  emaciated.  The  Christian  Science  practitioner 
soothed  it,  and  ordered  it  to  have  plenty  of  milk.     Healed.     , 

2.  Mr.  P.  Headaches  and  "bowel  trouble,"  healed  after  two 
years  of  Christian  Science  treatment.     "I  seem  to  progress  slowly." 

3.  Mrs.  R.  Healed  of  "sense  of  fatigue,  and  throat  trouble." 
Also,  when  knocked  down  by  a  bicyclist,  she  "suffered  no  pain 
at  all,  and  had  little  sense  of  shock." 

4.  Mrs.  C.  Suffered  from  "heart,  stomach,  and  nervous 
trouble";  also,  for  ten  years,  from  an  eruption  on  the  face.  "I 
was  cured  of  all  these  ailments  in  a  short  time :  except  the  eruption, 
which  did  not  seem  to  yield."  Finally,  she  convinced  herself 
that  the  eruption  must  be  due  to  anger :   and  then  it  was  healed. 

5.  Now  that  I  am  reading  the  proofs  of  this  chapter,  I  find 
that  I  numbered  these  cases  wrong,  and  went  from  4  to  6, 
leaving  out  5.  So  I  give  here  to  fill  the  gap,  one  of  the  testi- 
monies which  Miss  Feilding  quotes  in  her  admirable  book. 
"The  child  seemed  to  have  a  severe  cold,  and  his  parents, 
who  have  not  demonstrated  science  as  thoroughly  as  the  little  one 
has,  were  becoming  quite  anxious;  when  the  child  went  to  his 
father  and  asked,  *Papa,  will  you  please  read  Science  and  Health 
to  me  ?  I  am  sure  it  will  make  me  well !'  The  father  was  busy, 
and  heeded  not  the  childish  demand;  but  the  little  scientist  was 
not  to  be  thus  deprived  of  the  benefit  he  felt  sure  was  to  be  gained 
therefrom,  and  so  he  took  the  book,  and  in  his  own  innocent  way 
read,  *God  is  Love,'  and  repeated  the  *  Scientific  Statement  of 
Being.*  The  next  morning  the  cold  had  entirely  disappeared, 
and  Edward  was  well  and  happy."  This  child  was  five  years 
old,  and  had  attended  a  Christian  Science  Sunday-school. 

6.  Mrs.  B.     "I  have  been  healed  of  a  growth  in  the  breast. 


^3iMi.';tfiE-  EAITH  AND  WORKS 

which  I  had  for  seven  years,  and  which  was  pronounced  incurable 
by  my  physician,  unless  I  had  it  removed  with  the  knife.  My 
friends  were  urging  me  to  have  this  done  before  it  was  too  late; 
and  I  began  to  think  I  had  but  a  short  time  to  live,  when  I  was 
advised  to  take  Christian  Science  treatment.  I  was  healed  of  the 
growth  in  three  weeks."  * 

7.  Mrs.  T.  Was  healed,  at  various  times  of  her  Hfe,  of  "  severe 
rheumatic  trouble,  catarrhal  trouble,  bilious  attack,  and  other 
troubles,  sense  of  fear,  and  chills." 

8.  Miss  E.  Was  healed  of  "a  very  bad  catarrhal  trouble  of 
several  years*  standing":  also  of  "a  neuralgic  trouble." 

9.  Mrs.  W.  Was  healed  of  "a  very  depressed  state,  and  great 
weakness  of  the  heart." 

10.  Rev.  F.  B.  Was  healed  of  "chronic  stomach  and  bowel 
trouble."  Also  suffered  from  "mental  depression";  which  was 
relieved,  but  not  healed. 

11.  G.  E.  S.  Was  healed,  for  a  time,  of  "severe  rheumatic 
trouble":  then  it  recurred,  "in  an  even  more  determined  way 
than  before  " :  and  again  he  was  healed. 

12.  Mrs.  E.  Was  healed  of  the  pain  of  a  bum.  "The  healing 
went  on  rapidly,  and  in  a  very  short  time  all  manifestation  of  the 
trouble  disappeared." 

13.  Mrs.  A.     Healed  of  "  rheumatic  trouble." 

14.  Mr.  B.  Healedof  "stomach  and  heart  trouble."  Also,  of 
pain  and  deafness,  not  of  long  duration,  in  one  ear.  This  witness 
was  healed,  at  78,  of  "the  tobacco  habit,"  by  Christian  Science. 

15.  Mr.  S.  Says  that  he  was  "a  physical  wreck,  not  sleeping 
well,  melancholy,  and  irritable.  What  made  matters  worse,  I 
began  to  read  a  medical  book,  which  only  added  to  my  misery,  as 
I  believed  after  reading  it  that  I  had  an  incurable  disease."    Healed. 

*  I  have  written  to  this  patient,  asking  her  about  her  case,  but 
have  not  received  any  answer.  She  may  have  had  some  in- 
flammatory thickening  of  a  part  of  the  breast. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  103 

16.  Miss  S.  "Many  ills,  known  under  materia  medica  as  throat 
and  lung  trouble,  etc.,  have  been  destroyed."  * 

17.  Mrs.  K.  Her  mother  died  in  an  asylum.  "Ever  since  I 
was  a  child,  I  had  been  haunted  with  the  fear  of  hereditary  insan- 
ity."    Was  healed  of  this  fear. 

18.  Mr.  G.  Was  healed  of  "stomach  trouble"  and  of  head- 
aches. 

19.  Mrs.  W.  This  patient,  in  one  of  her  later  confinements, 
attended  herself:  "The  experience  was  all  over  in  three  hours, 
without  pain  or  the  expense  of  a  nurse  or  doctor."  On  another 
occasion  she  was  "very  ill  and  nearly  unconscious,"  and,  at  the 
reading  aloud  of  Science  and  Health,  she  felt  "a  glow  of  warmth" 
come  over  her. 

20.  Mrs.  D.  Was  enabled,  by  Christian  Science,  "to  over- 
come the  effects  of  a  severe  operation";  and,  on  several  occasions, 
"to  help  members  of  her  own  family  out  of  many  distressing  at- 
tacks of  illness." 

21.  Mrs.  A.  Healed  of  "severe  pains  in  the  head."  One 
of  her  children  was  healed  of  "fever."  Another,  four  years  old, 
having  swallowed  a  marble,  was  relieved  of  pain.  Nothing  is 
said  about  the  marble. 

22.  Mrs.  W.  Suffered  from  sleeplessness.  "For  nearly  a  fort- 
night my  reason  completely  gave  way."     Healed. 

23.  Mrs.  P.  Had  occasional  "attacks  of  deafness."  Two 
attacks  were  relieved  by  ordinary  treatment :  the  third,  after  three 
weeks,  by  Christian  Science. 

24.  Mr.  B.     Was  cured  of  "the  liquor  habit." 

25.  Mrs.  D.  Suffered  from  "dropsical  and  heart  trouble," 
and  was  "unable  to  leave  her  bed."  I     She  says  that  the  doctors 

*  Destroyedy  i.e.  made  to  cease. 

f  Nothing  is  said  as  to  the  site,  origin,  or  duration  of  the 
"dropsy."  Whatever  it  was,  there  is  no  evidence  that  it  was 
due  to  any  organic  disease  of  the  heart.     I  have  written  to  this 


104  THE   FAITH  AND  WORKS 

said  "that  she  could  last  but  a  few  days  at  most."  Healed  at  once 
by  Christian  Science.  She  also  tells  of  a  child  who  fell  with  its 
face  against  a  hot  stove,  and  stopped  crying,  and  was  healed  with- 
out a  scar. 

26.  Miss.  M.  A  factory-girl :  healed  of  "stomach  trouble," 
and  of  "a  growth  under  the  eyelid."  * 

27.  Mr.  L.  Had  an  operation  for  "an  intestinal  trouble." 
The  operation  was  followed  by  "adhesions  of  the  bowels,  with 
complications."  These  troubles  were  healed  by  fifteen  weeks  of 
Christian  Science  treatment.  One  year  ago,  he  was  cured  of  "rup- 
ture" by  three  weeks  of  "  absent  treatment."  f 

28.  Mrs.  T.  Healed  of  "liver  and  kidney  trouble,  and  stif- 
fening of  the  joints." 

patient,  and  she  has  kindly  answered.  She  tells  me  nothing 
more  about  her  case.  I  give  here,  and  I  am  sorry  to  seem  offen- 
sive, part  of  her  letter.  I  think  it  right  to  use  her  letter  as  evi- 
dence, (i)  That  Christian  Science  accepts  any  testimony  of  healing, 
however  ignorant  and  illiterate;  (2)  That  the  Sentinel  corrects 
and  embellishes  the  style  and  the  spelling  of  these  testimonies. 
Here  is  the  letter:  —  "Your  letter  was  forwared  to  me  here  will 
say  in  regard  to  your  inquiry  about  science  I  had  been  sick  for 
years  before  and  had  meny  doctors  some  speshelist  none  of  them 

could  do  eny  thing  for  me  there  was  a  healer  in and  my 

children  were  small  the  oldes  one  had  heard  of  christian  Science. 
.  .  .  God  will  heal  us  throw  all  our  medisons  away  God  doesent 
need  them  and  we  will  then  get  his  blessings." 

*  Nothing  is  said  as  to  the  nature  of  this  "growth." 
I  Adhesions,  or  symptoms  attributed  to  adhesions,  occur  fre- 
quently after  abdominal  operations;  and  would  disappear,  in 
many  cases,  in  less  than  fifteen  weeks.  Of  cases  of  "rupture," 
it  need  only  be  said  (i)  That  some  other  malady  is  often  mis- 
taken for  a  rupture;  (2)  That  many  ruptures  disappear  for  months, 
or  even  for  years,  of  their  own  accord. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  105 

29.  Mr.  M.  Had  "an  ear  disease"  in  infancy,  which  was 
treated  in  vain.  "One  specialist  gave  me  up  as  incurable."  After 
more  than  eight  weeks  of  Christian  Science  treatment,  he  one  day 
heard  the  clock  ticking.  "  From  that  day  to  this  my  ears  have  been 
normal.  The  ear-drums,  which  were  said  to  be  destroyed,  have 
been  replaced,  and  perfect  hearing  restored  to  me."  *  Has  also  been 
healed,  at  various  times,  of  a  "dreaded  fever,"  a  dog-bite,  and  "nu- 
merous minor  ailments." 

30.  Mrs.  S.  "I  was  enabled  to  overcome  quickly  an  acute 
attack  of  lung  trouble."  She  had  recovered,  twice,  from  similar 
attacks,  without  the  help  of  Christian  Science,  f 

31.  Mrs.  F.  Testifies  that  her  child,  two  years  old,  was  "taken 
quite  ill  one  night,  with  fever  and  cough":  and  was  healed  in  the 
course  of  twenty-four  hours. 

32.  Mrs.  R.  Fell,  hurting  her  spine  and  one  hip.  Had  absent 
treatment.  "In  one  short  week  I  was  entirely  healed,  not  only 
from  the  effects  of  the  fall,  but  I  was  also  freed  from  a  form  of  bowel 
trouble :  I  was  also  healed  of  heart  trouble  of  long  standing,  and  of 
stomach  trouble." 

33.  Mrs.  W.  Testifies  that  her  child,  six  years  old,  had  "  several 
attacks  of  trouble  with  his  neck."  She  read  Science  and  Health 
to  him,  and  in  less  than  ten  minutes  he  said,  "My  neck  is  all  right 
now."  Another  child  was  healed  of  "bronchial  trouble  and  ear- 
ache." The  earache  left  him  instantaneously,  while  he  was  re- 
peating, "God  is  infinite,  all-power." 

34.  Mrs.  H.  Broke  one  of  the  bones  of  her  leg.  It  was  prop- 
erly set  and  bandaged  by  a  medical  man.  In  three  weeks  she  began 
to  walk  round  the  room.  Healed,  also,  of  "headaches  and  stomach 
trouble." 

*  I  have  written  to  this  patient,  but  have  had  no  answer.  Of 
course,  even  after  extensive  destruction  of  the  drums  of  the  ears, 
there  is,  often,  very  fair  hearing. 

1 1  wrote  to  this  patient,  and  she  has  kindly  answered  my 
letter.     It  is  certain  that  her  malady  was  not  consumption. 


io6  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

35.  Mr.  J.  Was  healed  (February  1907)  of  a  "dreaded  kidney 
disease."  Says  that  he  was  told  in  Hospital  that  he  would  die  of 
it :  and  that  he  was  advised  to  undergo  an  operation.  Says  noth- 
ing as  to  the  nature  of  the  disease,  or  its  symptoms. 

36.  Louise  B.  After  a  severe  illness,  had  Christian  Science 
treatment  during  her  convalescence,  and  soon  got  well.  Later, 
was  healed  of  a  "stomach  trouble." 

37.  Miss  S.  For  ten  years  had  "a  complication  of  diseases." 
Also,  had  weak  eyesight,  and  "stomach  trouble."     Healed. 

38.  Mrs.  O.  For  ten  years  studied  "mysticism,  occultism 
and  Vedastic  philosophy."  At  the  end  of  this  time  she  felt  "con- 
fused, restless,  impatient,  irritable  and  nervous."     Healed. 

39.  Mrs.  G.  Testifies  that  her  boy,  ten  years  old,  had  "a 
chronic  skin  disease"  (?  ordinary  ringworm).  After  two  or  three 
months  of  Christian  Science,  there  was  "a  marked  change  for  the 
better."     Healed  after  ten  months. 

40.  Mr.  W.  Cured  of  "the  liquor  and  tobacco  habits."  Had 
already  cured  himself,  several  times,  by  his  own  will,  for  some 
weeks  or  months. 

41.  Mrs.  H.  "I  had  been  suffering  from  serious  kidney 
trouble,  and  had  been  given  up  to  die,  not  only  by  our  home  phy- 
sicians, but  by  some  of  the  best  specialists  in  the  county."  Was 
healed  by  seven  months  of  Christian  Science  treatment.  Later, 
in  the  winter  of  1906-7,  "I  had  a  weight  of  worry  and  disease  on 
my  hands.  Once  again  it  was  said  that  I  could  not  live.  All 
through  the  night  of  May  29,  1907,  the  nurse  sat  by  my  bed  telling 
me  to  breathe,  and  the  next  morning  my  earthly  existence  seemed 
limited  to  only  a  few  minutes;  but  when  the  dear  ones  gathered 
round  my  cot  I  was  roused  to  fight  for  my  life."  *  Healed  rapidly 
after  two  visits  from  a  Christian  Science  practitioner. 

42.  Mr.  S.  A  good  case  of  a  man  cured  of  drink.  Has  kept 
straight,  now,  for  more  than  a  year. 

*  Compare  cases  87  and  140. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  107 

43.  Miss  W.  "I  was  so  nervous  that  I  could  not  walk  alone, 
could  not  feed  myself,  or  even  write  my  own  name/'  Was  healed 
**in  a  comparatively  short  time."  Also,  was  healed  of  "serious 
rheumatic  trouble." 

44.  Mr.  S.  Healed,  after  prolonged  treatment,  of  "terrible 
headaches." 

45.  J.  L.     Healed  of  "  stomach  trouble  and  despondency." 

46.  Mrs.  B.  Had  undergone  two  operations.  Afterward, 
had  Christian  Science  treatment.  "In  three  months  I  was  cured 
of  a  malignant  growth,  stomach  trouble,  and  severe  headache." 
Has  remained  well  for  seven  years.* 

47.  Kate  M'G.  "I  suddenly  became  aware  of  a  paralytic 
condition  affecting  one  side  of  my  face."  Healed  in  less  than  a 
week.     An  ordinary  case  of  "  Bell's  paralysis." 

48.  Mr.  O.     Healed  of  "throat  trouble,  bowel  trouble,  acute 

*  I  have  written  to  this  patient,  and  she  has  kindly  answered. 
She  tells  me  that  she  had  a  tumour  in  her  breast,  and  that  the 
doctor  said  it  was  "cancerous."  She  tells  me  nothing  as  to  the 
extent  of  the  operations,  or  the  interval  between  them,  or  the 
nature  of  the  disease.  It  may  have  been  sarcoma,  not  carcinoma. 
There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  it  recurred  after  the  second  opera- 
tion. She  tells  me  that  the  doctor  who  operated  on  her  is  dead. 
She  is  now  a  healer  in  Los  Angeles,  California,  a  great  centre  of 
Christian  Science;  and  she  records  many  cases  of  healing  in  her 
family.  Her  mother-in-law  was  healed  of  "very  serious  kidney 
and  heart  trouble":  her  husband,  of  "nervous  and  stomach 
trouble":  her  sister,  of  "asthmatic  trouble  in  a  cruel  form." 
This  sister  had  left  Chicago,  and  come  to  Los  Angeles,  for  the 
sake  of  the  climate :  and  we  may  attribute  her  recovery  to  this 
change  of  air  and  scene.  If  the  reader  cares  to  study  the  healings 
at  Los  Angeles,  he  must  read  The  Los  Angeles  CasCy  3.  pamphlet 
sold  in  Christian  Science  reading-rooms,  giving  a  mutilated  version 
of  a  trial  for  the  death  of  a  child  under  Christian  Science. 


io8  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

lung  trouble,  chronic  headache,  and  other  minor  ailments."  Three 
of  his  children  were  healed  of  "a  fever*':  another  was  healed  of 
"a  serious  illness." 

49.  Mrs.  S.     Her  child  was  healed  of  "bowel  trouble." 

50.  Mrs.  M.  Healed  of  "continual  stomach  and  bowel 
trouble." 

51.  Mr.  B.  Healed  of  "severe  stomach  trouble,  a  throat 
trouble,  and  a  disagreeable-looking  growth  on  my  face."  Also, 
of  a  stiff  knee.  When  he  was  a  boy,  he  had  cut  his  knee  with  an 
axe,  and  thereafter  "had  been  left  in  such  a  condition  that  he  was 
compelled  to  use  a  wooden  stump."  The  knee  "had  been  in  a 
very  bad  condition  for  fifty  years."  Then,  he  had  a  fall,  and 
severely  sprained  the  knee.  During  the  Christian  Science  treat- 
ment of  this  sprain,  "the  flesh  became  natural  in  appearance:  and, 
when  I  got  around  again,  I  found  to  my  surprise  that  my  toes  came 
about  five  inches  nearer  the  ground  than  they  did  before  I  was 
confined  to  my  bed  from  the  fall."  * 

52.  Mrs.  S.  Testifies  that  her  child,  under  two  years  old,  hit 
his  forehead  on  a  stone  step :  she  reflected  on  the  central  doctrine 
of  Christian  Science,  and  the  child  did  not  cry. 

53.  Mrs.  L.  Healed  of  headache.  Also,  one  child  was  healed 
of  "a  fever  in  its  worst  form":  another,  of  "a  fever  and  rheumatic 
trouble." 

54.  Mrs.  R.     Her  little  boy  had  "rupture,"  and  could  not  walk. 


*  This  is  a  good  instance  of  such  cases  as  are  cured  by  bone- 
setters.  The  sprain  broke  some  old  adhesions,  and  forcibly 
worked  a  joint  that  had  been  kept  bent  for  many  years.  The 
growth  on  the  patient's  face  was  doubtless  an  ordinary  wart:  it 
had  been  burned  once  or  twice,  with  acid  or  caustic,  before  he 
had  Christian  Science  treatment.  He  also  testifies  that  his  wife 
was  healed,  in  half-an-hour,  of  "bowel  trouble."  Also  his  grand- 
daughter, twelve  years  old,  was  healed  of  "a  nervous  trouble," 
which  prevented  her  from  eating  or  talking. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  S.CIENCE  109 

After  two  hours  of  Christian  Science,  he  walked  two  miles.     **He 
said  he  was  not  tired,  nor  has  he  complained  since." 

55.  Mrs.  S.  Healed  of  "spinal  trouble  and  heart  trouble." 
Later,  "I  met  with  a  slight  accident,  causing  a  bruise,  and  a  dis- 
ease appeared  on  my  body."  Was  healed  of  this  "disease"  by 
Christian  Science  in  three  years. 

56.  Mr.  R.  "After  three  days'  perusal  of  this  priceless  volume 
{Science  and  Health)  I  discovered  that  I  no  longer  needed  glasses, 
and  that  headaches,  and  all  my  physical  ailments,  which  were 
many,  had  been  swept  away." 

57.  Nellie  M.  "Eye  trouble,  and  untold  misery  from  stomach, 
bowel,  and  spinal  trouble."  Under  Christian  Science,  was  slowly 
enabled  to  do  without  glasses. 

58.  Mrs.  E.  "I  was  seemingly  very  near  death's  door.  I  had 
been  under  the  care  of  doctors  constantly  for  nine  years,  besides 
taking  various  kinds  of  blood-medicine.  I  was  suffering  from  a 
dreaded  disease,  which  was  then  said  to  be  in  its  last  stage." 
Healed.* 

*  I  have  written  to  this  patient,  and  she  has  kindly  answered 
my  letter.  She  says  that  she  had  cancer;  and  that  for  eleven 
years  she  was  miserable,  never  free  from  pain.  It  is  incredible 
that  a  patient,  with  cancer  so  far  advanced  as  to  be  painful,  would 
live  eleven  years.  She  gives  me  the  names  of  two  doctors  who 
attended  her,  but  tells  me  that  they  are  dead.  She  tells  me,  also, 
that  she  had  a  "cancer-doctor"  a  year  before  she  found  Chris- 
tian Science.  She  tells  me  nothing  more  about  her  case.  It  is 
not  to  be  believed  that  any  case  of  cancer  would  be  treated,  for 
nine  or  eleven  years,  with  "blood-medicine."  She  says  nothing 
as  to  the  site  of  her  malady,  or  as  to  any  surgical  treatment.  She 
does  not  even  say  that  the  doctors  said  it  was  canfter.  I  may 
add  that  the  contrast,  between  the  style  of  her  letter  and  the  style 
of  her  testimony  in  the  Sentinel,  shows  how  these  testimonies  are 
corrected  by  the  editor  of  that  journal.     See  case  25. 


no  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

59.  Mrs.  C.  Had  an  abscess  in  the  breast,  which,  she  feared, 
was  cancer.  Under  Christian  Science,  "the  abscess  came  naturally 
to  a  climax,  and  discharged  without  medical  aid."  She  alludes, 
also,  to  "many  other  healings." 

60.  Ella  M.  Healed,  slowly,  of  "a  trouble  of  many  years* 
standing,  which  had  expressed  itself  in  an  uninterrupted  depres- 
sion, and  in  many  physical  ailments.  Life  was  a  burden  to  me, 
an  inexpressible  agony;  every  ray  of  light  seemed  to  have  vanished 
from  my  consciousness." 

61.  Mrs.  S.  Suffered  from  "heart  disease  and  great  nervous- 
ness." After  three  months  of  Christian  Science,  she  was  able  to 
do  her  housework. 

62.  Mrs.  M.  Her  two  children  were  healed  of  "bronchial  and 
asthmatic  trouble  in  a  severe  chronic  form,  sore  throat,  and  other 
ailments." 

63.  Mrs.  H.  Was  healed,  slowly,  of  "headaches,  heart  trouble, 
and  kidney  trouble." 

64.  Miss  B.  Had  "a  very  severe  cold  and  fever,  and  coughed 
almost  continuously  for  several  days  and  nights."  Was  completely 
relieved  by  a  week  of  absent  treatment.  Also,  an  earache  was 
"overcome  in  a  very  short  time." 

65.  Mrs.  T.  "Physical  ailments  too  numerous  to  mention 
have  been  cured,  including  two  cases  *  of  a  fever  in  its  worst  form ; 
also  a  predisposition  to  throat  trouble  and  almost  constant  colds." 

66.  Bessie  S.  "For  six  months  I  was  not  able  to  walk  any 
distance,  on  account  of  a  malignant  growth  on  my  leg.  I  had 
two  doctors,  but  they  did  me  no  good."     Healed. f 

*  I.e.  attacks.  The  word  case  is  often  used,  in  these  testi- 
monies, for  attack. 

f  I  have  written  to  this  patient,  but  she  has  not  answered. 
There  is  not  the  faintest  reason  for  thinking  that  the  "growth" 
on  her  leg  was  malignant.  It  is  just  a  phrase,  like  Mrs.  Eddy's 
"most  malignant  contagion." 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  in 

67.  Mrs.  H.  "A  miserable  creature,  constant  backache  and 
periodical  suffering,  also  many  other  ailments."     Healed. 

68.  Mrs.  Z.  "When  my  baby,  18  months  old,  drank  concen- 
trated lye,  we  declared  the  truth,  and  in  24  hours  she  was  free  from 
all  trace  of  the  severe  burning,  and  joined  the  family  at  the  table, 
eating  all  kinds  of  food."  * 

69.  Mrs.  T.  Was  healed  of  "what  seemed  to  be  blood-poison- 
ing. My  hands,  head,  and  face  presented  an  alarming  appear- 
ance. Although  there  seemed  to  be  much  inflammation,  there  was 
no  fever,  and  very  little  pain."  f 

70.  Caroline  G.  "For  ten  years  I  was  a  confirmed  invalid, 
having  undergone  four  surgical  operations,  and  having  had  nearly 
every  ailment  that  flesh  is  heir  to."  Was  healed  in  two  days. 
Later,  was  healed  of  "a  relapse  of  a  number  of  old  troubles,  an 
organic  difficulty  among  others." 

71.  Mr.  P.  Was  healed  of  "lung  and  paralytic  trouble." 
This  patient  is  out  in  all  weathers;  and,  on  a  winter's  day,  having 

*  Mrs.  Z.  also  testifies  that  she  was  healed  of  "an  enlarged 
neck,  accompanied  by  a  choking  sensation."  Also,  that  her  hus- 
band was  healed  of  a  pain  in  his  eye.  If  we  assume  that  she 
really  had  "an  enlarged  neck,"  let  us  assume  that  she  was  sub- 
ject to  exophthalmic  goitre.  Then,  we  have,  as  commentary, 
a  case  mentioned  in  the  New  York  Medical  Journal^  November 
18,  1899.  "A  woman,  with  exophthalmic  goitre,  had  been  under 
the  care  of  a  number  of  skilled  physicians,  without  benefit,  and 
had  received  most  of  the  approved  methods  of  treatment.  At 
last,  she  asked  her  doctor  whether  Christian  Science  would  do 
harm,  and  was  told  that  it  probably  would  not;  and  left  him, 
with  the  apparent  intention  of  going  to  a  Christian  Scientist. 
Two  days  later  she  began  to  improve,  and  continued  to  improve, 
though  she  had  not  gone  to  any  Scientist.  Exophthalmic  goitre  is 
a  disease  that  is  profoundly  influenced  by  suggestion." 

f  It  sounds  like  a  rash  from  eating  shell-fish. 


112  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

gone  to  sleep  on  a  sofa,  he  woke  and  found  that  he  could  not  move 
any  part  of  his  body  except  his  left  arm.  He  says  that  he  was 
paralysed  about  three  weeks."  * 

72.  Leila  G.  Healed  of  "an  abscess  in  the  ear,  and  numerous 
bilious  attacks.'* 

73.  Josephine  W.  Healed  of  "a  very  bad  catarrhal  trouble," 
of  six  years*  duration,  which,  she  says,  was  affecting  the  ears. 
Says  that  her  hearing  is  perfect  now. 

74.  L.  S.W.  Healedof" neuralgic  headaches,  stomach  trouble 
and  an  eye  trouble."  Also,  of  "colds,  sore  throat,  and  many  other 
discordant  conditions." 

J 5.  Lillian  B.  Testifies  that  her  father  suffered  from  "rheu- 
matic trouble**  for  over  twenty  years:  was  cured  by  Christian 
Science  in  two  months,  and  has  had  no  rheumatic  trouble  for 
two  years.  "I  may  also  gladly  say  that  during  the  treatment  the 
desire  for  liquor  entirely  left  him.*'  f 

76.  Mrs.  S.  "I  was  taken  with  an  acute  illness  in  what  seemed 
to  be  its  worst  form.  I  suffered  great  distress,  and  my  body  seemed 
racked  with  pain.  A  Christian  Science  practitioner  was  called, 
and  in  one  treatment  I  got  up  and  walked  without  pain.** 

77.  Mr.  S.  Healed,  in  August  1906,  of  "severe  hay  fever 
and  asthmatic  trouble*'  of  30  years*  duration.  His  father  had 
died  with  "asthmatic  trouble.** 

78.  Mr.  G.  Testifies  that  his  wife,  by  the  help  of  absent  treat- 
ment, was  enabled  to  overcome  all  fear  prior  to  a  confinement, 

*  If  we  assume  that  the  evidence  is  accurate,  it  is  possible 
that  the  patient  had  a  slight  attack  of  myelitis,  after  exposure 
to  cold.  He  also  testifies  that  his  wife  was  "healed  beautifully 
of  physical  troubles  of  long  standing**:  and  that  all  his  five  chil- 
dren, who,  attending  the  public  schools,  had  "contracted  a  very 
serious  form  of  skin  disease,**  were  healed. 

f  The  giving  up  of  liquor  would  help  to  keep  off  the  rheumatic 
trouble.     See  case  127. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  113 

and  nearly  all  pain  during  it.     Also,  he  says,  "toothache,  colds, 
headache,  in  fact  every  discord  is  yielding  to  Truth." 

79.  Mrs.  L.  "Very  delicate  from  childhood:  a  sufferer  from 
nervous  and  stomach  troubles.'*  She  had  also  worn  a  support, 
for  a  hernia,  for  more  than  nine  years.  Under  Christian  Science, 
her  "physical  troubles  gradually  disappeared"  in  1904. 

80.  Mrs.  L.  "Severe  nervous  trouble  and  chronic  liver  com- 
plaint. For  seven  years  I  suffered  in  mind  and  body.  I  was 
healed  with  one  treatment  after  all  these  years  of  suffering."  Her 
daughter,  aged  12,  was  healed  of  a  "curvature"  of  the  spine. 

81.  Mr.  M.  "I  was  a  physical  as  well  as  a  mental  wreck, 
using  a  pair  of  crutches  and  suffering  great  pain  from  a  severely 
injured  hip  and  other  complications,  besides  being  without  hope 
in  the  world  and  not  caring  what  became  of  me."  Under  Chris- 
tian Science,  he  slowly  got  rid  of  his  crutches,  and  of  a  high  cork 
sole.*  "I  still  have  a  few  minor  ailments,  but  am  gradually  over- 
coming them." 

82.  Annice  F.  "I  suffered  from  inflammation,  rheumatic 
trouble,  etc.     I  also  had  to  wear  glasses."     Healed. 

83.  Gustavus  F.  "From  childhood  I  was  nervous,  weak,  de- 
spondent, morbid,  afraid  even  to  wish  to  be  well  and  normal." 
Healed. 

84.  Emma  H.  Went  to  a  Christian  Science  meeting.  "An 
experienced  Scientist  spoke,  and  while  she  was  speaking  I  suddenly 
realised  that  one  of  the  ailments  which  had  troubled  me  for  five 
years  had  passed  away." 

85.  Mr.  P.  A  hernia,  which  had  come  down,  went  back  under 
Christian  Science  treatment.  "I  would  like  also  to  state  that  my 
wife  was  instantly  cured  of  acute  lung  trouble  ten  years  ago,  and, 
a  few  years  later,  of  abdominal  trouble.  Each  time,  it  was  a  case 
of  immediate  healing." 

86.  Ruth  R.     Has  "sometimes  overcome  a  severe  headache." 

*  An  ordinary  case  of  fear  of  leaving  off  crutches. 
X 


114  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

87.  Mrs.  T.*  "A  hopeless  sufferer  for  ten  years.  In  that 
time,  I  suffered  many  things  of  many  physicians.  I  was  in  despair, 
in  doubt  and  darkness,  both  spiritually  and  physically,  being 
obliged  to  remain  in  a  dark  room  for  weeks  at  a  time.  I  had 
reached  the  point  of  being  almost  willing  to  give  up  the  struggle, 
my  physician  having  told  me  that  I  could  not  last  long,  and  not  at 
all  without  the  medicine.  One  day,  when  both  he  and  my  family 
thought  I  was  near  the  end,  I  turned  away  from  ill,  and  asked  God 
to  save  my  life  for  my  child's  sake,  and  I  promised  God  then  that 
I  would  give  the  rest  of  my  earthly  days  to  His  service.  To  both 
the  physician's  and  my  family's  surprise,  I  was  better  the  next 
day.     Soon  after  this,  I  heard  of  Christian  Science,"  etc. 

88.  A.  J.  Suffered  from  female  trouble,  and  had  been  treated 
by  "osteopathy."  After  one  treatment  with  Christian  Science, 
was  able  to  walk  feebly  downstairs,  and  in  three  weeks  was  entirely 
healed. 

89.  Mr.  F.  Was  healed  of  a  sprained  ankle.  Testifies  also 
that  his  wife,  "sentenced  to  die  by  materia  medica"  was 
healed. 

90.  Mrs.  H.  Was  healed,  in  three  weeks,  of  "a  rupture,  ner- 
vousness, and  a  severe  bowel  trouble." 

91.  W.  S.  I.  "A  sense  of  not  being  strong,  of  needing  tonics: 
shortsightedness  was  said  to  be  hereditary,  and  I  seemed  to  have 
a  very  unhealthy,  morbid  thought."     Healed. 

92.  Mrs.  F.  In  1902,  had  an  operation  for  female  trouble. 
In  1905,  "after  having  read  one  number  of  the  (Christian  Science) 
journal,  and  part  of  another,  I  discovered  that  I  had  been  com- 
pletely healed  of  the  disease."  Has  also  been  enabled  to  leave 
off  glasses,  after  wearing  them  for  fifteen  years. 

*  This  case  occurs  not  among  Testimonies  of  Healing,  but 
among  Letters  to  our  Leader^  in  the  Christian  Science  Sentinel, 
June  20,  1908.  I  have  included  it  here,  because  of  the  light  that 
it  throws  on  the  healing  of  many  of  these  patients. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  115 

93.  Mrs.  M.  Healed  of  "chronic  bowel  trouble."  Also, 
had  an  easy  confinement. 

94.  Mrs.  W.  Testifies,  at  great  length,  to  the  recovery,  "by 
the  help  of  God,"  of  her  purse,  which  she  had  left  in  a  shop.  She 
adds  that  she  has  "overcome  many  physical  ailments." 

95.  Mrs.  M.  Testifies  that  her  child,  i8  months  old,  cut  her 
ear.  A  surgeon  stitched  up  the  ear,  and  a  healer  "commenced 
to  give  the  child  treatment  at  once."     Healed. 

96.  Florence  W.  "Without  any  warning,  I  was  taken  ill  with 
acute  lung  trouble."  Next  day,  by  the  help  of  Christian  Science, 
was  able  to  get  about. 

97.  L.  B.  In  childhood  had  "a  severe  and  complicated  eye 
trouble."  This  came  to  an  end,  when  she  was  about  sixteen,  under 
Christian  Science.  Also,  "a  severe  case  (attack)  of  blood-poison- 
ing has  been  met,  and  numerous  other  ailments  have  been  de- 
stroyed." 

98.  Mrs.  S.  "For  sixteen  years  I  was  much  of  the  time  in 
very  bad  health:  for  four  years  being  almost  helpless."  She 
had  eleven  physicians.  "Their  various  modes  of  treatment  only 
added  to  my  sufferings."     Healed. 

99.  Clara  B.  "Through  constant  fear  and  worry,  I  finally 
lost  my  voice.  Peace  and  quietness  and  confidence  have  taken 
the  place  of  fear  and  anxiety,  and  my  voice  is  being  restored  at  an 
age  when  mortal  mind  would  and  does  deem  it  impossible." 

100.  Nellie  R.  "Heart  trouble  and  severe  headache,  supposed 
to  be  hereditary,  were  overcome."    Also,  her  aunt  was  healed  of 

'very  serious  throat  and  rheumatic  trouble." 

loi.  Cecilie  R.  Healed  of  "bowel  trouble  and  a  severe  throat 
trouble." 

102.  Mrs.  W.  Healed,  in  six  weeks,  of  "what  the  doctor 
had  called  serious  lung  and  bowel  trouble." 

103.  T.  M.  G.  Healed,  in  five  minutes,  of  "a  disease  which 
had  been  troubling  me  for  two  or  three  years." 

104.  Miss  C.     "I  have  been  healed  of  many  troubles,  among 


ii6  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

which  were  pneumonia  and  a  tumour  of  between  four  and  five 
years*  growth."  * 

105.  Helen  Y.  "Not  long  since,  I  was  taken  with  a  pain  in 
my  side,  which  seemed  every  minute  to  increase  in  violence." 
Healed  by  reading  one  passage  in  Science  and  Health  over  and 
over  again.  She  also  mentions  a  young  lady  who  was  healed  of 
"several  serious  diseases." 

106.  Miss  M*C.  "Ten  years  ago,  I  was  healed  of  what  the 
doctors  called  consumption." 

107.  Mr.  M.  "About  a  year  ago,  I  was  thoroughly  healed  of 
a  chronic  disease  of  fifteen  years*  standing.  I  was  also  a  slave 
to  the  tobacco  habit  for  35  years,  and  was  a  heavy  drinker.  There 
seemed  to  be  no  cure  for  me,  but  after  a  few  treatments  the  desire 
for  both  tobacco  and  strong  drink  left  me." 

108.  Mr.  P.  "At  the  age  of  forty,  I  was  healed  of  serious  kid- 
ney disease,  of  a  supposedly  inherited  stomach  and  rheumatic 
trouble,  etc."  Was  also  cured  of  "the  tobacco  habit,"  after  25 
years  of  the  use  of  tobacco. 

109.  Mrs.  P.,  aged  75.  "I  was  very  ill  with  stomach  trouble. 
I  had  been  treated  by  doctors  for  seven  years,  but  grew  worse 
day  by  day.  ...  I  began  reading  (Science  and  Health)  about 
half-past  five  in  the  afternoon,  and  continued  until  half-past  two 
in  the  morning,  when  I  knew  that  the  truth  had  made  me  free." 

no.  Mrs.  B.  Healed  of  "an  acute  illness.'*  Also,  was  able 
to  induce  sleep  in  a  woman  who  was  "  suffering  severely.** 

*  I  have  written  to  this  patient,  and  she  has  kindly  answered. 
She  says  that  the  "tumour"  was  "in  her  side**:  that  she  never 
showed  it  to  any  doctor.  "I  thought  I  would  trust  wholly  to 
Christian  Science,  which  I  did,  helping  myself  what  I  could,  until 
the  time  came  when  I  couldn*t  seem  to  stand  the  pain,  so  went 
to  a  (Christian  Science)  practitioner,  and  was  healed  in  eight 
weeks*  treatment.**  Thus  we  have  not  a  particle  of  evidence  that 
she  had  a  tumour,  beyond  her  own  belief. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  117 

111.  Miss  G.  "I  had  been  an  invalid  all  my  life,  and  for 
15  years  was  confined  to  the  house,  most  of  this  time  being  spent 
in  bed.  One  of  my  troubles  was  from  frequently  recurring  abscesses 
in  my  head  (discharge  from  the  ear),  from  which  I  suffered  terribly, 
being  in  constant  pain.  I  also  had  severe  stomach  trouble,  and 
the  physician  could  only  keep  me  stupefied  with  opiates.  In  this 
way  the  habit  was  formed,  and  for  ten  years  I  was  never  without 
the  drug."     Healed  in  a  few  weeks. 

112.  Mrs.  B.  Testifies  to  "the  overcoming  of  serious  ailments 
from  which  my  little  son  was  suffering :  the  overcoming  of  heart, 
stomach,  and  kidney  trouble,  etc.  All  these  cures,  and  more, 
have  been  effected  in  my  own  immediate  circle." 

113.  Mrs.  H.  **A  tired  feeling,  and  other  discordant  mani- 
festations and  ailments." 

114.  Grace  N.  Trod  on  a  nail.  "I  began  a  mental  protest 
against  the  accident,  and  the  possibility  of  its  having  any  power 
to  give  me  pain.  On  the  day  following,  there  was  a  manifestation 
of  swelling,  which  was,  however,  speedily  destroyed."  Also,  on 
two  occasions,  was  healed  of  a  sprained  ankle.  Also,  has  been 
healed  of  "supposedly  hereditary  and  chronic  diseases  —  diseases 
which  are  called  incurable  by  reputable  physicians." 

115.  Mr.  M.  "As  far  back  as  I  can  remember,  I  had  gen- 
erally been  ailing,  and  when  I  reached  manhood  my  sufferings 
increased  so  that  life  seemed  not  worth  living.  I  tried  many 
things,  and  *  suffered  many  things  of  many  physicians,*  but  was 
not  benefited.  At  last,  one  day,  frantic  with  pain,  I  decided 
that  suicide  was  the  only  remedy."  Healed.  Also,  was  healed 
of  "the  appetite  for  tobacco  and  other  evils."  Also,  one  of  his 
children  was  healed  of  a  sore  throat. 

116.  Mrs.  A.  Healed  of  "severe  kidney,  throat,  and  heart 
trouble." 

117.  Mr.  E.  "I  woke  up  one  morning  with  a  pain  so  severe 
that  it  frightened  me."  Was  put  to  sleep,  in  half-an-hour,  by 
the  reading  aloud  of  Science  and  Health.     Later,  "a  most  serious 


ii8  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

nervous  disease,  which  had  grown  no  better  for  seven  years,  left 
me  entirely."  Later,  on  a  steamer,  was  not  seasick.  "I  had 
never  been  seasick  before,  but,  when  every  one  around  me  began 
to  be  ill,  I  was  very  much  afraid  I  should  be  too." 

1 1 8.  Eleanor  B.  "Headache,  an  attack  of  rheumatic  trouble, 
injury  to  the  head,  toothache,  and  many  other  ailments  such  as 
seasickness  and  colds." 

119.  Winifred  H.  "Headaches,  chronic  catarrhal  troubles, 
bronchial  and  lung  trouble." 

120.  Mr.  B.  "I  had  a  spinal  injury.  I  was  helpless  most 
of  the  time  for  seven  years.  My  mind  was  affected  to  the  extent 
that  some  of  my  family  felt  the  only  safe  place  for  me  was  an 
asylum  for  the  insane."     Healed.     Also,  left  off  spectacles.* 

121.  Lucy  K.  "For  seven  years  I  had  scarcely  seen  a  well 
day."     Healed. 

122.  Mr.  H.  "In  the  morning,  I  never  felt  better  in  my  life. 
About  noon,  I  was  taken  with  very  severe  heart  trouble.  I  at 
once  telephoned  for  (Christian  Science)  help:  and,  being  very 
hungry,  I  ate  a  bowl  of  soup,  after  which  I  rested  upon  a  couch," 
etc.     Healed  that  afternoon. 

123.  Frau  K.  Healed  in  four  days,  of  "what  mortal  belief 
calls  acute  lung  trouble."  Later,  her  daughter  was  healed,  in 
fourteen  days,  of  "the  same  complaint." 

124.  Mrs.  R.  Testifies  that  "colds,  an  eruptive  fever,  etc.," 
were  healed.     Also,  "  an  attack  of  lung  trouble." 

125.  Mrs.  M.  Healed  of  "supposed  hereditary  lung  trouble, 
together  with  kidney  and  stomach  trouble." 

126.  Mr.  Y.  "When  I  first  heard  of  Christian  Science,  I 
was  loaded  down  with  all  or  nearly  all  of  the  diseases  known  to 
materia  medica."     Healed. 

127.  Mr.  H.  Was  a  heavy  drinker  and  an  inveterate  smoker. 
**The  greater  part  of  my  earnings  went  to  satisfy  the  appetite  for 

*  A  typical  case  of  nervous  mimicry. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  119 

liquor."     Was  healed  by  Christian  Science  of  both  these  habits. 
Healed,  also,  of  "severe  rheumatic  trouble  and  varicose  veins."* 

128.  Mrs.  H.  Testifies  that  she  had  a  painless  confinement: 
and  that  her  husband  was  healed  of  "stomach  trouble." 

129.  Mr.  L.  A  bum  of  face  and  hands  was  healed,  in  three 
and  a  half  weeks,  "without  a  scar."  His  wife  was  healed  of 
"stomach  trouble":    his  daughter,  of  a  "gathering  in  her  ears." 

130.  Mrs.  C.     "Rheumatic  trouble,  and  serious  eye  trouble." 

131.  Mrs.  B.  "Chronic  bowel  trouble,  and  many  other  serious 
ailments." 

132.  Emma  N.  Healed  of  "internal  disease,"  after  several 
weeks  of  treatment.  "Had  it  not  been  for  Christian  Science, 
I  know  I  could  not  have  gotten  through  short  of  the  surgeon's 
knife." 

133.  Mr.  S.  Testifies  that  his  child  was  healed  of  sore  throat. 
"Her  aunt  examined  the  child's  throat,  and  pronounced  it  serious." 

134.  Mr.  F.  "I  was  healed  of  blood-poisoning  of  long  stand- 
ing, also  of  the  tobacco  habit  and  a  desire  for  strong  drink." 

135.  Elizabeth  L.  "Headaches,  neuralgic  trouble,  and  a 
sprained  ankle." 

136.  Mr.  T.     "A  sore  throat,  and  feeling  generally  miserable." 

137.  Mabel  N.  "I  could  not  get  rid  of  a  temper  that  was  the 
terror  of  my  life,  until  I  knew  that  *the  good  shepherd*  was  leading 
me."  Healed,  also,  of  colds,  chapped  hands,  and  the  pain  of  an 
injured  finger. 

138.  Annie  S.  Healed,  immediately,  of  "sleeplessness";  and, 
gradually,  of  "chronic  stomach  and  bowel  trouble,  severe  headache, 
etc." 

139.  Mr.  L.  Healed  of  "neuralgic  trouble."  Granddaughter 
healed  of  "throat  trouble." 

*  The  giving-up  of  the  drink  would  tend  to  improve  the  rheu- 
matic trouble :  see  case  75.  The  improvement  of  the  veins  may 
be  due  to  his  having  worn  an  elastic  stocking  for  thirty-one  years. 


120  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

140.  Mrs.  F.  "I  became  only  a  shadow  of  my  former  self." 
Suffered  from  "female  trouble  of  the  most  aggravated  nature, 
followed  by  alarming  complications.  Nine  weeks  I  had  laid  on 
my  bed :  my  friends  were  standing  around  me  in  sorrow  waiting 
for  the  end  to  come.*  I  became  unconscious.  ...  I  turned 
myself  in  bed  to  make  sure  I  was  really  on  earth,  and  saw  a  lady 
sittirtg  by  my  bedside.  I  asked  her  if  she  was  a  nurse,"  etc. 
Healed :  and  in  four  days  was  driving  out. 

141.  Ella  E.  "My  case  was  complicated,  the  physicians  all 
said,  and  when  they  attempted  to  give  medicine  for  one  trouble, 
it  would  work  against  the  other  ailments."  She  specially  mentions 
"stomach  trouble  in  its  severest  and  most  distressing  form,  and 
chronic  bowel  trouble."  Healed.  Later,  "  I  used  some  turpentine, 
to  wash  some  paint  off  my  arm,  which  at  once  became  very  painful 
and  presented  an  alarming  appearance."     Healed. 

142.  Mrs.  P.  "My  husband  has  been  healed  of  the  liquor 
and  tobacco  habits,  and  a  great  many  forms  of  sickness  have  been 
destroyed  in  our  home." 

143.  Mrs.  W.  "I  had  been  given  up  to  die,  as  we  had  ex- 
hausted materia  medica.  Two  or  three  doctors  had  said  that  I 
had  a  complication  of  diseases.  I  have  been  healed  of  severe 
bowel  trouble,  female  weakness,  convulsions,  and  other  diseases." 

144.  Mrs.  G.  "Years  of  invalidism :  the  undergoing  of  many 
operations,  which  left  me  in  a  wretched  state  physically  and  men- 
tally."    Healed.     Also,  was  able  to  leave  off  glasses. 

145.  Mr.  B.  Was  enabled,  by  Christian  Science,  to  give  up 
drinking  and  smoking.  Was  also  healed  of  a  "serious  throat 
trouble."  t 

146.  Mrs.  B.  Healed,  instantaneously,  "when  almost  beside 
myself  with  pain  and  suffering  from  an  abscess  in  the  ear."J 

*  Compare  cases  41,  87:  perfect  examples,  all  three,  of  ner- 
vous mimicry  of  approaching  death. 

f  The  giving-up  of  tobacco  and  alcohol  would  cure  the  throat. 
X  A  common  case  of  discharge  from  the  ear,  with  relief  of  earache. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  121 

147.  Mrs.  D.     Healed  of  "abdominal  trouble." 

148.  Mr.  B.  "I  had  been  suffering  for  many  years;  and  the 
many  physicians  whom  I  consulted,  with  one  exception,  diagnosed 
the  case  as  a  nervous  disease.'*  Also,  healed  of  asthma,  lameness,* 
the  tobacco  habit,  and  "numerous  other  ailments." 

149.  Mrs.  K.  "Christian  Science  came  tome  about  four  years 
ago.  I  could  not  then  read  a  letter  through,  or  even  write  a  post- 
card, but  now  I  can  read  and  write  all  I  want  to.  My  healing  has 
been  slow." 

150.  Amanda  L.  Healed  of  "serious  bowel  trouble,  and  a 
heart  trouble  for  which  I  had  been  taking  the  strongest  tonics." 
Also  of  a  hurt  to  the  palm  of  the  hand;  and  of  "a  sudden  most 
excruciating  pain  in  my  side." 

151.  Flora  W.  Got  wet  in  the  rain,  and  caught  cold:  "but, 
through  the  realisation  of  the  omnipresence  of  Love,  I  was  soon 
perfectly  well  again."  Testifies,  also,  that  her  mother,  after  an 
"injury  to  the  spine,"  suffered  from  "nervous  troubles,  with  nu- 
merous complications";  was  treated  by  massage,  change  of  air, 
electricity,  magnetic  healing,  and  mental  science;  was  "several 
times  very  near  death";  and  was  healed  by  Christian  Science. 
"My  mother's  healing  has  been  slow.  The  fear  of  food  was  over- 
come immediately,  and  after  several  treatments  chronic  bowel 
trouble  was  healed.  The  attacks  of  nervousness  are  only  occa- 
sional now,  and  less  intense." 

152.  Mrs.  S.  Healed  of  "catarrhal  trouble";  also,  left  ofF 
glasses.  Also,  "I  was  blessed  with  a  demonstration  at  the  birth 
of  our  baby  girl,  which  all  conversant  with  the  conditions  will 
agree  with  me  could  only  have  been  brought  about  by  a  much 
higher  source  than  materia  medica.  It  was  nothing  less  than  the 
demonstration  of  God's  allness  through  true  understanding. 
The  birth  was  a  normal  one,  complete  harmony  prevailing.  I 
progressed  rapidly." 

*  A  typical  example  of  nervous  mimicry  of  paralysis. 


122  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

153.  Mr.  M.  "A  nervous  and  mental  wreck,  a  condition 
brought  on  by  drinking,  a  habit  I  had  indulged  for  about  seventeen 
years."  Cured,  by  Christian  Science,  in  three  weeks.  Has  gone 
nearly  a  year  without  drink. 

154.  A.  M.  D.  Healed  of  "periodical  headaches,  a  painful 
injury  to  the  ankle,  and  other  ills."  Also,  on  a  steamer,  was  not 
seasick. 

155.  A.  L.  S.  "I  suffered  a  complete  physical  breakdown, 
which  was  diagnosed  as  stomach  and  nervous  trouble,  etc."  Had 
tried  "mineral  springs,  osteopathy,  homoeopathy,  etc."     Healed. 

156.  Mrs.  H.  Her  little  boy  was  healed  of  "a  dreaded  disease 
of  the  kidneys."  Later,  after  twelve  weeks  of  Christian  Science 
treatment,  healed  of  a  "growth  in  the  throat."  * 

157.  Mrs.  M.  "  I  was  only  a  young  girl  when  Christian  Science 
found  me,  yet  life  seemed  hardly  worth  while."  She  had  "internal 
trouble"  from  a  fall.  "I  had  a  complication  of  diseases,  so  the 
physicians  had  said,  the  internal  trouble  having  brought  on  com- 
plications of  the  stomach  and  bowels.  I  had  had  heart  trouble 
from  childhood,  and  kidney  disease  developed  later."     Healed. 

158.  Mrs.  W.  "Quickly  healed  of  serious  troubles  of  long 
standing."     Also,  had  a  very  easy  confinement. 

159.  Mrs.  C.  "It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  poor  health 
was  my  portion :  ten  years  of  almost  constant  ill-health."  Healed 
also  of  "  lung-trouble :  it  vanished  as  a  nightmare." 

160.  Miss  O'B.  "The  physicians  who  treated  me  did  not 
agree  in  diagnosing  the  case,  but  the  existing  conditions  were  said 
to  be  an  extreme  form  of  blood  disease,  which  transfusion  had 
failed  to  relieve;  a  helpless  or  partially  paralysed  condition  of  the 
body  from  the  waist  down;   severe  spinal  and  bowel  trouble,  etc." 

*  Many  children  seem  to  have  adenoids,  who  have  only  a 
narrowness  of  the  back  of  the  throat.  Of  this  case,  alone  of  the 
two  hundred,  the  editor  of  the  Sentinel  proudly  says  that  he  has 
a  doctor's  certificate. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  123 

Had  been  treated  with  electricity,  osteopathy,  change  of  air.  "The 
helplessness  of  my  condition  is  indescribable,  but  it  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  most  of  the  time  (three  years)  I  was  kept  in  a  darkened 
room,  with  all  bells  silenced  and  all  voices  hushed,  under  the  con- 
stant care  of  from  one  to  three  physicians  and  as  many  professional 
nurses;  many  times  they  worked  over  me  all  through  the  night.* 
In  all,  I  was  treated  by  physicians  from  five  different  States,  about 
fifteen  in  number,  and  was  cared  for  by  as  many,  or  more,  of  the 
best  professional  nurses."     Healed. 

161.  Mrs.  P.  Healed  of  "nervous  and  stomach  trouble,  fre- 
quent attacks  of  headache,  and  an  obstinate  case  (attack)  of  hay- 
fever."     Also,  of  a  cut  and  inflamed  arm. 

1 62.  Mr.  W.  Cured  of  drinking  and  smoking,  and  of  "  stomach 
and  throat-trouble."  f 

163.  Mrs.  R.  "At  21  my  health  failed  me,  and  I  was  given 
up,  after  sounding  the  depths  of  materia  medica"  Healed,  also, 
slowly,  of  "  serious  lung  trouble." 

164.  Mrs.  G.  "My  little  boy  had  a  nail  driven  into  his  foot  to 
such  a  depth  that  force  had  to  be  used  to  withdraw  it.  The  blood 
gushed  in  angry  spurts,  1:  and  the  pain  was  intense,  but  an  imme- 
diate realisation  of  the  allness  of  God  and  the  nothingness  of  matter 
overcame  the  trouble  at  once.  Almost  instantly  the  flow  of  blood 
was  staunched :  and  the  next  morning  only  a  tiny  spot  remained." 

165.  Harriet  P.  Had  "a  serious  condition  of  the  spine." 
Healed.  "I  had  suff^ered  terribly  from  this  trouble,  and  spent 
a  great  deal  of  money  for  medical  treatment.     The  last  osteopath 

*  Compare  case  41 :  "All  through  the  night,  the  nurse  sat  by 
my  bed  telling  me  to  breathe."     Compare  also  case  87. 

f  A  good  case  of  a  drunkard  converted.  The  healing  of  the 
stomach  and  throat  troubles,  of  course,  followed  the  giving-up  of 
the  drink. 

X  The  rest  of  the  evidence  is  in  a  no  less  exaggerated  style,  and 
of  great  length. 


124  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

to  whom  I  went  finally  said  — "  etc.     Also,  left  off  wearing  glasses. 
Also,  had  an  easy  confinement. 

1 66.  Mary  T.  "For  five  years  I  was  a  physical  wreck,  a  con- 
dition brought  about  by  overwork  in  the  schoolroom,  grief,  and 
an  accident  which  had  resulted  in  a  fractured  hip,  internal  injuries, 
and  spinal  trouble.  Each  year  found  me  getting  worse,  with  little 
hope  of  my  recovery."  Healed.  Mother  healed  of  **  stomach 
trouble." 

167.  Mr.  F.     Healed,  two  years  ago,  of"  serious  lung  trouble."  * 

168.  Mrs.  S.  "A  year  ago  I  was  injured  in  an  accident,  and 
as  a  result  went  down  into  the  shadow  of  death,  as  it  then  seemed : 
but  through  the  power  of  God  as  understood  in  Christian  Science 
I  was  raised  up." 

169.  Mr.  W.  Thrown  from  a  horse.  "I  was  injured  in  such 
a  manner  that  I  could  not  walk  or  work  in  any  comfort."  For 
this,  had  medical  treatment,  without  an  operation.  Five  years 
later,  had  Christian  Science  treatment.  "The  enlargement  grad- 
ually decreased,  until  now  the  condition  is  very  nearly  natural."  f 
Later,  was  healed  of  "an  eruptive  disease." 

170.  Jeannette  W.  "Severe  stomach  and  bowel  trouble,  and 
several  minor  ailments."  Also,  "was  a  slave  to  the  use  of  glasses 
for  nearly  ten  years."     Healed. 

171.  G.  V.  H.  Healed  of  "headaches"  in  six  months,  and  of 
"catarrhal  trouble"  in  eighteen  months.     Also,  eyesight  improved. 

172.  Annie  H.     Healed  of  "trouble  with  one  of  her  limbs." 

173.  Mamie  D.  "I  seemed  to  have  burned  my  hand  very 
badly."     Healed. 

174.  Mrs.    C.     "I    suffered    for   fifteen  years   with    stomach 

*  It  is  not  improbable,  from  this  witness's  account  of  his  case, 
that  he  was  consumptive,  and  got  well:  but  nothing  is  said  of 
any  examination  of  the  sputa. 

f  This  seems  to  be  an  ordinary  case  of  hernia,  for  which  the 
patient  wore  a  truss. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  125 

trouble.  I  could  not  walk  without  a  cane,  from  rheumatic  trouble. 
I  also  had  an  attack  of  paralytic  trouble.  For  a  time  I  was  almost 
blind."     Healed. 

175.  Mr.  S.  Testifies  that  he  had  varicose  veins,  for  which 
he  wore  an  elastic  stocking,  and  that  he  no  longer  suffers  from 
cramp  in  the  leg. 

176.  Mrs.  R.  Found  a  bee  sticking  to  her  child's  chin,  and 
the  child  screaming.  "I  took  the  child  in  my  arms,  and  began 
to  voice  the  truth.  One  statement  after  another,  from  Science 
and  Healthy  came  to  me :  and  in  a  few  moments  his  cries  stopped. 
There  was  only  a  tiny  mark." 

177.  Mrs.  M.  "Three  and  a  half  years  were  spent  in  suf- 
fering from  nervousness  and  abdominal  trouble,  during  which 
time  I  dragged  out  a  miserable  existence.  All  hope  of  relief 
from  material  means  had  fled."  Healed.  Also,  left  off  wearing 
glasses. 

178.  Mrs.  P.  "Many  physical  ailments  have  been  met  and 
overcome  by  Truth." 

179.  Mr.  C.     Healed  of  "malarial  fever  and  other  troubles." 

180.  Mr.  H.  Testifies  that  his  wife  was  healed  of  "troubles 
which  had  been  a  great  burden  to  her  for  several  years." 

181.  Mary  T.  Healed  of  "a  sense  of  extreme  nervousness, 
throat  trouble,  and  haemorrhages."  * 

182.  Mrs.  F.  Healed  of  "neuralgic  and  stomach  trouble,  head- 
aches, etc." 

183.  Mr.  A.     Healed  of  "some  attacks  of  sickness." 

184.  Gwendolen  B.  Healed  of  "various  heart  and  nervous 
troubles.  My  stomach  caused  me  great  alarm:  and  I  dared  not 
venture  out  on  the  street  alone  without  some  sort  of  heart  and 
nerve  stimulant." 

185.  Miss  P.  "I  fell  off  my  horse,  and  seemingly  injured 
my  spine:    but  I  got  up  and  mounted  my  horse,  knowing  that 

*  Nothing  is  said  as  to  these  "haemorrhages." 


126  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

as  God's  child  no  error  *  could  harm  me.  After  I  had  ridden 
a  mile  all  pain  had  ceased.  A  few  days  later,  I  noticed  that  when 
I  stooped  there  seemed  to  be  some  trouble,  and  I  then  set  myself 
to  work  more  earnestly  than  before.  The  result  was  that  in  three 
days  I  was  all  right." 

1 86.  Mrs.  H.  Healed  of  "an  abnormal  growth,f  ovarian 
trouble,  etc."     Also,  of  "a  severe  attack  of  bowel  trouble." 

187.  Mrs.  X.  "I  had  worn  an  elastic  on  my  ankle /or  ^/^A/^<?n 
years  for  an  injury,  and  had  always  to  use  a  stick  to  help  me  out 
walking,  but  I  was  able  to  lay  these  aside  at  once  when  I  accepted 
Christian  Science."  Healed,  also,  of  "sleeplessness  and  weak- 
ness." 

188.  Mr.  P.  "I  was  relieved  of  a  trouble  for  which  I  had 
systematically  drugged  myself  for  the  last  twenty  years." 

189.  Miss  C.  Healed  of  "a  nervous  breakdown,  an  attack 
of  throat  trouble,  fear  of  illness,  stomach  trouble,  headaches, 
debility,  sleeplessness,  depression,  and  an  internal  complaint." 

190.  Miss  D.  "For  years  I  was  practically  an  invalid,  suf- 
fering untold  moral  and  physical  agony,  an  awful  abyss  of  suffer- 
ing and  despair."  Healed.  Also,  "After  having  worn  a  brace  for 
a  year,  the  same  was  removed  without  a  particle  of  inconvenience." 

191.  Mr.  H.  Healed  of  "a  distressing  bowel  trouble  of  over 
fifteen  years*  duration." 

192.  Mr.  H.J  Healed,  after  more  than  two  months ,  of  an  in- 
growing toe-nail.  "For  about  ten  days,  I  attempted  to  work 
out  the  problem  without  aid,  but  gained  no  permanent  relief. 
I  then  asked  a  (Christian  Science)  practitioner  for  help;  and, 
during  the  next  two  months,  faithful  and  efficient  work  was  done. 

*  Error,  i.e.  mistaken  belief  in  the  reality  of  injuries  and  dis- 
eases. 

t  Nothing  is  said  as  to  the  nature  of  this  "growth." 
%  I  give  this  and  the  next  case  at  some  length,  because  they 
illustrate  so  clearly  the  methods  of  Christian  Science. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  127 

Not  a  moment  of  that  work  was  wasted;  for,  during  the  time, 
latent  terror  was  replaced  by  courage;  certain  human  footsteps 
that  were  slow  and  uncertain  had  to  be  taken;  environment  was 
gradually  changed,  and  thought  after  thought  was  uncovered  and 
corrected,  but  the  diseased  toe  still  remained  in  evidence.  We 
did  not  doubt  for  a  moment  that  God  could  heal  all  our  diseases, 
and  at  last  the  healing  came  quickly." 

193.  Alvaretta  R.  "For  over  fifteen  years  I  suffered  from 
spinal  trouble,  different  physicians  declaring  different  causes  for 
its  existence.  I  could  walk  only  a  little,  could  not  sit  up  all  day, 
while  I  never  slept  more  than  four  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four, 
and  was  never  without  pain.  I  had  serious  eye  trouble  for  years. 
I  also  had  stomach  and  bowel  trouble.  I  had  undergone  one  opera- 
tion to  no  avail,  and  I  almost  passed  on  (died)  under  the  influence 
of  the  anaesthetic.  I  could  scarcely  eat  anything.  I  also  suffered 
from  heart  and  lung  trouble.  I  had  tried  all  systems  of  medicine. 
I  had  been  under  medical  treatment  for  fifteen  years,  and  four 
months  with  osteopathy.  In  this  condition  —  without  hope  for 
physical  relief,  and  without  belief  that  a  God  existed  who  answered 
prayer  —  I  was  urged  by  a  dear  friend  to  try  Christian  Science, 
and  consented  to  go  with  her  to  a  practitioner  that  day.  I  took 
my  first  Christian  Science  treatment  at  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
returned  home,  and  enjoyed  the  first  dinner  of  ordinary  food  that 
I  had  eaten  for  more  than  a  year.  I  slept  all  that  night.  The 
first  treatment  healed  me  absolutely  and  permanently  of  the 
stomach  and  bowel  trouble,  natural  activity  being  re-established. 
In  a  few  weeks,  the  headache  was  entirely  gone :  the  heart  trouble 
was  also  healed  about  that  time;  and  the  diseased  lung  was  in- 
stantly healed  during  the  reading  of  the  Bible  Lesson  at  a  Sunday 
morning  service.  The  eye  trouble  was  almost  entirely  healed  in 
two  years.  It  took  nearly  three  years  to  overcome  entirely  the 
spinal  trouble,  though  it  was  partially  relieved  in  a  short  time." 

194.  Mrs.  C.  "About  fifteen  years  ago,  my  mother-in-law 
was  healed  of  a  complication  of  diseases  which  the  doctors  had 


128  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

failed  even  to  relieve,  and  they  had  given  her  only  a  short  time  to 
live." 

195.  Lilian  S.  "For  years  I  had  suffered  with  an  organic 
disease,  which  at  times  caused  me  great  agony  and  distress.  At 
times,  I  had  to  submit  to  go  to  bed."  Healed.  Also  left  off 
glasses,  "and  experienced  no  inconvenience  or  strain." 

196.  Ella  B.  Healed  of  "a  disagreeable  eruption."  Also, 
of  "severe  headaches,  a  spinal  affection,  bowel  and  throat  trouble, 
besides  a  difficulty  with  the  eyes." 

197.  F.  W.  "I  suffered  with  headache,  and  had  severe  bowel 
trouble  for  eleven  days.  I  had  Christian  Science  treatment,  and 
was  entirely  healed." 

198.  Mattie  E.  "I  have  seen  colds,  catarrhal  trouble  in  a 
very  severe  form,  a  severe  injury  to  the  ankle,  and  numerous  other 
diseases,  melt  away  into  their  native  nothingness."  Also,  "on 
Monday  evening,  I  was  attacked  by  what  seemed  to  me  a  most 
serious  case  of  illness.  After  working  through  the  night  for  myself, 
resisting  the  error,  and  declaring  the  truth  of  God's  allness,  I  de- 
cided in  the  morning  to  have  some  help :  so  I  telephoned  to  a  prac- 
titioner, and  was  treated  during  that  day,  and  arose  on  Wednesday 
morning  healed." 

199.  Mr.  H.  "About  six  years  ago,  I  suffered  greatly  from 
kidney  trouble.  I  could  not  rest  at  night,  and  had  sharp  pains 
during  the  day.  I  was  under  medical  treatment  for  about  five 
years,  but  nothing  seemed  to  do  me  any  good."  A  year  ago,  he 
got  severely  knocked  by  a  street-car,  and  had  Christian  Science 
treatment  for  the  bruise  of  his  side.  "In  four  days  I  was  back 
to  work,  completely  healed.  The  scar  could  hardly  be  seen, 
and,  what  is  more  wonderful,  my  kidney  trouble  has  vanished." 

200.  Mrs.  N.  "Two  years  ago,  my  young  son  was  seriously 
infected  by  a  centipede,  which  crawled  between  his  fingers,  as 
the  creature's  claws  are  said  to  contain  poison-sacs,  and  wherever 
they  touch  the  flesh  they  pierce  it.  According  to  medical  opinion 
this  poison  is  extremelj^  virulent,  producing  very  distressing  results. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  129 

It  was  with  this  asserted  law  staring  us  in  the  face,  and  the  fingers 
in  a  pronounced  state  of  inflammation,  that  Christian  Science  came 
to  the  rescue.  The  inflammation  was  seen  to  be  the  effect  of  fear, 
and  we  learned  that  divine  Love  casts  out  fear.  Knowing  there 
is  but  one  Mind,  which  is  ever-active,  ever-conscious,  and  ever- 
present,  and  that  in  this  Mind  there  is  not  a  single  element  of  poison 
—  this  met  and  mastered  the  belief  in  poison,  and  in  three  days 
the  hand  was  healed." 


130  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 


VII 
OPPOSING   TESTIMONIES 

Most  of  us,  I  think,  will  view  these  two  hundred 
cases  with  a  measure  of  dismay,  and  even  of  disgust. 
We  shall  admit  that  many  are  indeed  cases  of 
healing.  None  the  less,  we  shall  say,  here  is  a  very 
alarming  picture  of  a  nation  obsessed  by  functional 
disorders.  So  much  neurasthenia,  such  decadence 
of  logic,  such  passion  for  signs  and  wonders,  such 
extravagance  of  imagination,  so  much  talk  about 
stomach  and  bowels.  They  are  not  good  reading: 
there  is  something  unwholesome  about  them.  That 
ill-used  word,  morbid,  will  be  at  the  back  of  our 
minds:  there  is  nothing  morbid,  we  shall  say,  in 
the  Bible  stories  of  healing. 

Still,  they  were  healed.  Does  it  matter  how,  so 
long  as  they  were  healed  ? 

It  does  matter,  very  gravely.  There  is  a  certain 
decency  to  be  observed  as  to  our  insides.  It  is 
unseemly  to  talk  much  of  them  to  our  friends:  it 
is  more  than  unseemly  to  describe  them  to  our 
Maker.  Or,  shall  we  say  that  the  Scientist  urges 
them  into  health,  not  by  prayer,  but  by  contempla- 
tion ?     The  offence  remains.     Indeed,  let  alone  the 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  131 

Creator,  it  were  offensive,  for  such  a  purpose,  to  con- 
template the  creature.  If,  by  setting  my  thoughts 
on  Shakspeare,  Beethoven,  Darwin,  or  Joan  of 
Arc,  I  could  regulate  my  insides,  I  would  not. 
It  would  not  be  gentlemanly  thus  to  abuse  these 
great  names:  I  might  even  feel  some  scruple  over 
contemplating  to  this  end  the  Infinite  Truth  that 
two  and  two  make  four.  Anyhow,  the  vast  majority! 
of  these  testimonies  are  not  worth  the  paper  on  1 
which  they  are  printed.*     What  are  kidney  trouble, 

*  The  following  paragraphs  are  from  Dr.  Cabot's  very  valu- 
able paper,  "One  Hundred  Christian  Science  Cures,"  McClures 
Magazincy  August  1908:  — 

"In  the  analyses  of  these  cases,  I  am  guided  by  my  experience 
with  the  diagnosis  naively  given  by  patients  entering  my  office 
for  treatment:  diagnosis  based  either  upon  their  own  unguided 
observation,  or  upon  what  they  suppose  their  own  physician  to 
have  said  to  them.  In  such  instances,  there  is  no  possible  motive 
for  deception  or  for  exaggeration;  the  patient  is  saying  exactly 
what  he  believes;  and  yet,  I  have  rarely  found  his  statement  to 
be  even  approximately  correct.  For  example,  when  a  patient 
comes  to  me  with  the  statement  that  he  has  'kidney  and  bladder 
trouble,'  I  generally  find  both  the  kidneys  and  the  bladder  sound. 
The  patient  has  pain  in  his  back,  in  the  region  where  he  supposes 
his  kidneys  to  be;  he  interprets  his  symptoms  in  the  light  of 
what  he  has  read  in  the  newspaper  advertisements,  and  what  he 
has  been  told  by  his  kind  friends,  and  arrives  at  what  is,  to  his 
mind,  a  perfectly  solid  conclusion.  He  has  no  doubts  of  the 
diagnosis,  states  it  as  a  fact,  and  asks  only  for  treatment. 

"So  it  is  with  patients  coming  for  'spinal  trouble,*  'hardening 
of  the  spine,*  'inflammation  of  the  spine,*  or  'spinal  meningitis.* 


132  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

lung  trouble,  heart  trouble,  liver  trouble,  and  eye 
trouble  ?  They  are  not  chronic  nephritis,  phthisis, 
valvular  disease,  cirrhosis,  and  cataract.  Bowel 
trouble  is  ordinary  constipation;  stomach  trouble 
is  ordinary  indigestion  and  aversion  from  food; 
spinal  trouble  is  ordinary  backache.  These  are  not 
testimonies,  but  testimonials;  every  advertisement 
of  a  new^  quack  medicine  publishes  the  like  of  them. 
We  all  knov^r  Mr.  A.  and  Mrs.  B.  and  Miss  C,  who 

They  almost  always  turn  out,  on  careful  examination,  to  be  suffer- 
ing from  some  form  of  nervous  prostration.  In  the  interpreta- 
tion of  their  sufferings,  and  in  the  names  which  they  attach  to 
them,  they  have  been  guided,  quite  innocently,  by  hearsay. 

"Similarly,  when  patients  come  to  me  for- what  they  quite  in- 
nocently call  *  heart  trouble,'  and  turn  out  on  examination  to 
be  suffering  from  pain  in  the  left  side  of  the  chest  without  any 
heart  trouble  at  all,  I  accuse  them  of  no  deception,  but  only  of 
incapacity  for  the  active  appreciation  of  the  value  of  evidence. 

"Certain  other  statements  recur  very  often  in  the  histories 
given  in  all  good  faith  by  patients,  whether  in  the  doctor's  office 
or  in  a  Christian  Science  experience  meeting.  I  will  quote  some 
of  these :  — 

"*I  have  had  a  great  many  doctors,  and  each  has  made  a  dif- 
ferent diagnosis.' 

"*I  am  suffering  from  a  complication  of  diseases,  Bright's 
disease,  liver  and  lung  complaint,  and  other  ailments  too  numer- 
ous to  mention.' 

"'I  have  had  a  great  many  operations  performed  on  me.* 

"Experience  shows  us  that  when  a  person  has  had  many  doc- 
tors, many  diagnoses,  many  *  diseases,*  or  many  operations,  he 
usually  turns  out  to  be  suffering  from  nervous  prostration  or 
some  other  form  of  functional  nervous  trouble." 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  133 

bear  witness  to  So-and-so's  Pills.  They  had  spinal 
trouble  and  kidney  trouble.  There  is  a  rough 
sketch  of  them,  doubled  up  with  pain,  or  weeping 
at  the  family  tea  table.  And  it  is  certain,  that  the 
pills  did  them  good. 

Again,  many  of  these  witnesses  are  not  telling 
the  truth.  They  are  so  excitable,  so  ill-educated, 
that  they  fail  to  distinguish  truth  from  falsehood. 
They  have  given  false  evidence,  have  perjured 
themselves,  not  wilfully,  but  from  sheer  inability  to 
be  accurate. 

Again,  we  all  know  that  no  statement  is  more 
inaccurate  than  the  average  statement  of  "what  the 
doctor  said."  We  listen  with  politeness  to  it,  but 
without  acceptance:  we  think  to  ourselves,  /  wish 
I  knew  what  he  really  did  say. 

Again,  what  is  the  good  of  proclaiming  that 
Christian  Science  heals  diseases  which  get  well  of 
themselves .?  Time  heals  them.  Here  is  a  girl 
with  a  cold  in  her  head:  she  is  healed  "through 
the  realisation  of  the  omnipresence  of  Love."  Was 
there  ever  such  an  insult  offered  to  the  name  of 
Love  ? 

Again,  the  healing  of  one  "trouble"  must  not 
be  reckoned  as  the  healings  of  half-a-dozen  troubles. 
For  example,  a  woman  is  subject  to  aversion  from 
food,  constipation,  headache,  backache,  liver  trouble, 
and  eye  trouble.  Christian  Science,  bidding  her  eat 
more,  amends  all  these  troubles:    and  is  thereby 


134  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

encouraged  to  order  plenty  of  solid  food  in  cases  of 
gastric  ulcer,  and  in  cases  of  typhoid  fever  with 
ulceration  of  the  bowels. 

Again,  what  is  the  good  of  testifying  to  the  healing 
of  hernia  ?  Was  it  hernia  ?  Suppose  that  it  was, 
what  sort  of  hernia  was  it  ?  Hernia  will  vanish  for 
ever  so  long,  and  leave  no  sign  of  its  presence.  Or, 
take  the  cases  of  asthma.  Were  they  asthma .? 
Even  then,  asthma  can  hardly  be  called  an  organic 
disease.  Or,  take  the  "tumours."  Were  they  soHd 
tumours,  or  cysts,  or  effusions,  or  deep-seated  ab- 
scesses, or  inflammatory  swellings .?  Who  made 
the  diagnosis  .?  Were  they  subjected  to  microscopic 
examination  by  a  skilful  pathologist  ?  Or,  take 
the  "dislocations."  Were  they  x-rayed  .f"  Were 
they  not  the  cases  that  bonesetters  cure  ?  Or,  take 
the  cases  of  "lung  trouble."  Most  of  them  were 
ordinary  bronchitis.  One  or  two,  not  more,  may 
possibly  have  been  early  consumption.  Which  of  us 
has  not  friends  who  were  consumptive,  and  now  are 
strong,  and  hard  at  work  .? 

Let  us  apply  a  fair  and  mild  test  to  these  two 
hundred  cases.  Let  us  show  them  to  any  doctor; 
and  let  us  ask  him  what  he  thinks  of  them.  He 
will  laugh  at  them:  he  will  say,  "What  is  the  good 
of  such  cases .?  Why  don't  they  report  them  prop- 
erly ?  Why  don't  they  give  details  ^  What  do 
they  mean  by  spinal  trouble,  and  all  the  other 
troubles?" 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  135 

Still,  attempts  have  been  made,  from  time  to  time, 
to  get  right  up  to  these  healings  in  Christian  Science, 
and  to  go  into  them.  Of  course,  if  the  Church  of 
Christ,  Scientist,  here  in  London  to-day,  would 
submit  them  to  the  hosts  of  iEsculapius,  the  difficulty 
would  be  settled.  A  committee  of  hospital  phy- 
sicians and  surgeons,  the  best  in  London,  would  ex- 
amine, test,  watch,  record,  and  report  every  case 
under  treatment.  Till  that  is  done,  which  is  im- 
possible. Christian  Science  claims  to  heal  all  dis- 
eases. For  example,  among  her  documents  is  that 
famous  cure  of  leprosy,  the  Barrett  case. 

I.   The  Barrett  Case 

The  Christian  Science  Sentinel,  August  8,  1908, 
gave  prominent  place  to  the  following  statement :  — 

This  is  not  the  first  time  Christian  Scientists  have  been  chal- 
lenged to  produce  proof  of  the  healing  of  so-called  incurable  dis- 
eases. Within  the  last  few  months,  such  a  challenge  was  answered 
before  the  Committee  on  Public  Health  at  the  Massachusetts  State 
House,  the  healing  of  Dr.  G.  W.  Barrett,  of  St.  Louis,  of  leprosy, 
being  cited,  authenticated,  and  admitted  as  evidence  *  before  this 
Committee. 

I  wrote  to  Dr.  Barrett,  and  received  the  following 
answer :  — 

In  reply  to  your  inquiry  of  August  17,  will  say  that  you  can  in 
all  probability  get  the  desired  information  by  writing  to  Alfred 

*  Mr.  Farlow  suddenly  produced  a  telegram  from  Barrett, 
saying  that  he  had  been  healed  on  such-and-such  a  day. 


136  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

Farlow,  C.S.D.,  Boston,  Mass.  He  is  publication  committee 
of  Mass.  You  can  learn  somewhat  of  my  case  in  the  C.  Sentinel 
of  March  14  of  this  year.  "Out  of  Darkness  into  Light/'  is  the 
title  of  the  article.     I  am  too  busy  to  give  any  of  the  details. 

It  is  a  pity  that  this  ex-leper  is  too  busy  to  give 
glory  to  God;  but  the  Boston  Journal,  March  5, 
1908,  gave  me  the  details.  Three  Bills  were  before 
the  Committee  on  Public  Health :  one  dealing  with 
the  legal  position  of  Christian  Scientists,  one  with 
the  protection  of  children  against  them,  and  one 
with  the  giving  of  death  certificates  by  doctors  not 
in  regular  attendance.  Cases  of  *' healing"  were 
put  in  evidence;  and,  amid  great  excitement,  Mr. 
Farlow  declared  that  Dr.  Barrett  had  been  healed  of 
leprosy.  "In  a  moment  the  room  was  in  an  uproar; 
hundreds  of  women,  jubilant  over  the  sudden  turn 
of  affairs,  loudly  applauded."  Indeed,  we  are  told 
that  "  the  assembly  shrieked  with  delight."  * 

*  There  is  a  grim  account,  by  Dr.  Huber,  of  a  similar  scene 
in  the  Assembly  Chamber  at  Albany,  February  1900.  "While 
the  hearing  went  on,  I  contemplated  the  great  number  of  enthu- 
siasts who  had  come  into  this  magnificent  chamber  to  impress 
the  Assembly  Committee,  and  to  uphold  their  leaders.  The 
opportunity  to  study  hysteria  was  one  the  like  of  which  I  shall 
probably  never  again  realise.  I  vividly  recalled  Poe*s  story  of 
how  he  had  inadvertently  happened  into  a  maison  de  sante;  and 
I  could  quite  appreciate  the  observation  of  a  colleague,  that  the 
situation  made  him  think  of  nothing  in  the  world  so  much  as 
one  of  Charcot's  clinics  on  an  enlarged  scale."  But,  at  the  Albany 
meeting,  other  forms  of  belief  were   represented:    spiritualism, 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  137 

Dr.  Barrett,  in  his  published  account  of  his  case, 
tells  us  that  for  thirty  years  he  was  never  free  from 
some  ailment,  and  continually  taking  medicine. 
"  It  seemed  impossible  to  get  rid  of  biliousness,  which, 
from  a  mortal  standpoint,  I  have  inherited.''  So, 
at  last,  he  went  for  a  short  holiday.  "I  returned 
home  worse  than  when  I  went  away  —  a  physical 
wreck,  suffering  from  enlargement  and  softening  of 
the  liver,  indigestion,  ulceration  of  the  bowels  in  the 
most  aggravated  form,  heart  trouble,  and  that  most 
dreaded  of  all  diseases,  leprosy,  which  had  been  con- 
tracted when  called  to  see  a  patient  who  had  been 
afflicted  with  it.  I  felt  a  sense  of  fear  come  over  me 
while  in  the  room,  but  never  dreamed  of  its  being 
leprosy,  as  I  had  never  seen  a  case  of  that  kind.  I 
told  the  patient  that  I  could  do  nothing,  and  left."* 
Some  time  afterward  he  noticed  some  spots  on  his 
body.  He  says  that  "a  specialist"  pronounced  them 
**  leprosy  in  its  incipient  stage."  He  felt  that  his 
days  on  earth  were  few.  "I  can  see  now  that  it  was 
my  fear  that  fastened  the  disease  upon  me."  So  he 
paid  one  visit  to  a  Christian  Scientist,  who  laughed 
at  him,  and  told  him  to  eat  what  he  liked.  In 
half-an-hour,  the  pain  in  his  bowels  was  gone:  an 
hour  later,  he  ate  a  huge  dinner.  He  gives  two 
hundred  words  to  a  description  of  the  dinner,  and 

occultism,  etc.     Still,  it  is  certain  that  Christian  Science  has  not 
always  a  quieting  influence. 

*  Words  fail  me  to  comment  on  this  episode  of  Barrett's  story. 


138  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

of  its  results  next  morning,  by  which  time  the  spots 
had  "nearly  vanished."  Three  months  later,  he 
had  gained  thirty  pounds  in  weight. 

Here  is  a  typical  case  of  hypochondriasis,  with 
imagined  infection.  Oddly  enough,  a  similar  case 
has  occurred  in  Dr.  M'Comb's  "  Class  for  the  Moral 
Treatment  of  Nervous  Disorders,"  Emmanuel 
Church,  Boston :  — 

...  "A  case  of  a  curious  phobia  —  fear  of  leprosy.  The 
patient  had  read  in  the  Bible  about  lepers,  and  she  had  heard  of 
some  Chinese  sufferers  from  the  same  malady.  Suddenly  the  fear 
seized  her  that  she  was  in  danger  of  becoming  a  leper.  She 
spent  most  of  her  time  in  washing  her  hands  to  get  rid  of  the  sup- 
posed contagion,  until  she  remembered  that  the  soap  might  be 
infected.  Then  she  came  to  the  clinic.  After  a  few  treatments, 
the  fear  vanished,  and  has  not  returned.  This  occurred  several 
months  ago." 

2.    Dr.  Huber's  Evidence 

Dr.  Huber,  of  New  York,  some  years  ago,  made 
very  careful  inquiry  into  alleged  healings  of  organic 
diseases.  He  found  them  "pitifully  without  founda- 
tion." I  take  the  following  account  from  his  paper 
in  Appletons  Popular  Science  Monthly:  — 

In  religious  matters.  Christian  Science  has  divided  many  homes, 
and  has  destroyed  not  a  few  through  the  mischief  produced  by  its 
propaganda.  Many  have  died  during  the  exclusive  ministrations 
of  Christian  Scientists.  I  have  been  engaged  during  several  months 
in  an  investigation  of  the  cures  which  Christian  Science  healers 
are  said  to  have  accomplished.  .  .  .  What  I  did  want  especially 
to  discover  was  whether  the  Christian  Scientist  could  cure  such 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  139 

diseases  as  are  considered  by  the  medical  man  to  be  incurable  — 
as  cancer,  locomotor  ataxia,  or  advanced  phthisis  —  and  also  what 
were  the  results  of  their  treatment  of  typhoid  fever,  pneumonia, 
diphtheria,  malaria,  etc.  And  I  wanted  also  to  investigate  the  claims 
of  Christian  Science  concerning  the  alleged  cure  of  surgical  con- 
ditions, such  as  necrosis,  or  haemorrhage  from  severed  arteries,  by 
no  other  means  than  the  sole  exercise  of  thought. 

Dr.  Huber  therefore  prepared  a  set  of  questions 
as  to  the  general  methods  of  Christian  Science 
treatment.*  These  were  forwarded  by  Mrs.  Stetson, 
the  chief  Scientist  in  New  York,  to  Mrs.  Eddy. 
An  evasive  reply  was  received  from  Judge  Septimus 
Hanna,  Mrs.  Eddy's  "counsel":  — 

...  I  have  carefully  read  and  considered  the  entire  paper. 
My  conclusion  is,  that  it  will  be  wholly  impractical  —  indeed,  I 
may  say  impossible  —  to  answer  these  questions  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  make  an  entire  paper  lit  for  publication  in  a  medical  journal, 
or  in  any  other  magazine  or  periodical.  The  questions  submitted 
touch  the  entire  subject  of  Christian  Science,  both  in  its  theology 
and  therapeutics.  These  questions  can  be  answered  only  in  one 
way  so  that  they  can  be  understood,  and  that  is  by  just  such  study 
of  the  Bible  and  Science  and  Health  with  Key  to  the  Scriptures 
as  the  earnest,  sincere.  Christian  Scientists  are  giving  them  every 
day  of  their  lives,  and  have  been  for  years. 

Of  this  letter,  Dr.  Huber  truly  says,  "All  this 
seems  to  me  much  worse  than  preposterous.  I  fail 
utterly  to  see  why  he  who  asks  the  question,  *Do 
you  isolate  a  patient  suffering  from  an  infectious 

*  For  these  questions,  see  Lyman  Powell,  work  cited,  p.  178. 


140  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

disease?'  would  have  to  spend  months  or  years  in 
Nirvana-like  abstraction  before  he  would  be  able 
to  appreciate  an  answer  to  it.  No  doubt  Judge 
Hanna,  who  is  evidently  a  lawyer,  could,  if  he  chose, 
telLthe  reason  why.'* 

So  Dr.  Huber  made  personal  and  very  careful 
examination  of  twenty  cases,  where  it  was  alleged 
^that  Christian  Science  had  healed,  not  neurasthenia 
or  "hysteria,"  but  organic  diseases,  such  as  Bright's 
disease,  or  cancer.  "  I  could  find  in  all  these  twenty 
cases  no  'cure'  that  would  have  occasioned  the 
medical  man  the  slightest  surprise.  What  did 
surprise  me  was  the  vast  disproportion  between 
the  results  they  exhibited  and  the  claims  made  by 
Christian  Science  healers.  A  lady  stated  that  she 
had  had  pneumonia.  I  asked  her  how  she  knew 
she  had  had  pneumonia.  She  declared  she  knew, 
because  her  nurse  'could  tell  at  a  glance  she  had 
pneumonia.'  No  medical  examination  had  been 
made.  I  asked  what  symptoms  she  had  had. 
She  told  me  she  had  purposely  forgotten.  I  heard, 
during  my  investigation,  of  cases  of  yellow  fever, 
phthisis,  cancer,  and  locomotor  ataxia  which  had 
been  'healed  in  Christian  Science.'  But  truth 
compels  the  statement  that  my  efforts  to  examine 
these  cases  were  defeated  by  the  cheapest  sort  of 
subterfuge  and  elusion." 

~   Among  other  instances  of  such  defeat,  he  gives  the 
following :  — 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  141 

At  an  "experience  meeting,"  a  man  arose  and  declared  that 
he  had  cured  a  case  of  locomotor  ataxia.  I  learned  also  that  his 
wife,  another  "healer,**  had  cured  a  case  of  cancer  of  the  tongue. 
I  went  to  his  house,  and  spent  the  greater  part  of  an  evening 
trying  to  prevail  upon  these  two  people  to  show  me  or  to  intro- 
duce me  to  these  subjects  of  locomotor  ataxia  and  cancer  of  the 
tongue.     They  utterly  refused  to  do  so. 

.  .  .  Mrs.  Eddy  declares  that  she  "healed  consumption  in  its 
last  stages,  the  lungs  being  mostly  consumed";  that  she  "healed 
carious  bones  which  could  be  dented  with  the  finger**;  and  that 
she  "healed  in  one  visit  a  cancer  that  had  so  eaten  the  flesh  of  the 
neck  as  to  expose  the  jugular  vein  so  that  it  stood  out  like  a  cord.'* 
Judge  Hanna  has  published  statements  to  the  effect  that  "cancer, 
malignant  tumours,  consumption,  broken  bones,  and  broken  tis- 
sues have  been  healed  in  Christian  Science,  without  the  assistance 
of  any  material  means  whatever.**  Mr.  Carol  Norton,  a  Christian 
Science  lecturer,  has  publicly  announced  that  Christian  Science  has 
healed  "locomotor  ataxia,  softening  of  the  brain,  paresis,  tumour, 
Bright*s  disease,  cancer,'*  etc.  And  many  other  Christian  Scientists 
have  made  like  claims.  Very  well  then.  Who  are  these  people 
that  have  thus  been  cured  ?  What  are  their  names  ?  Where  do 
they  live .?  How  can  they  be  found  I  Will  Mrs.  Eddy  and  her 
followers  submit  these  cases  for  scientific  examination  ?  I  and 
other  investigators  are  asking,  and  have  for  years  been  asking  these 
questions,  and  we  are  all  of  us  still  waiting  for  answers. 

3.    Mr.  Purrington's  Evidence 

Mr.  Purrington,  University  Lecturer  on  Medical 
Jurisprudence,  New  York,  has  written  a  very  good 
book  on  Christian  Science,  especially  from  its  legal 
aspect  in  America.  I  take  the  following  paragraph 
from  his  book :  — 


142  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

In  the  record  of  deaths  resulting  from  the  treatment  of  Christian 
Scientists,  Faith  Curers,  PecuHar  People,  et  id  genus  omne^  a  large 
proportion  are  those  of  neglected  children  suffering  from  acute 
inflammation  of  the  lungs,  diphtheria,  pneumonia,  and  like  com- 
plaints. One  horrible  and  typical  case  in  Brooklyn  was  brought 
to  public  notice  by  an  undertaker  called  in  by  a  Faith  Curer  to 
bury  the  latter's  child,  six  years  of  age,  dead  from  diphtheria.  Two 
other  children,  one  about  eight,  the  other  less  than  two  years  old, 
were  found  suffering  from  the  same  disease.  The  father  explained 
his  failure  to  call  in  medical  aid  by  saying  he  did  not  believe  in 
doctors,  since  he  believed  in  Christ. 

Mr.  Purrington  gives  an  account  of  the  investiga- 
tion of  a  case,  "turned  out  to  die"  by  a  great  hos- 
pital, "given  up  by  three  physicians,"  and  healed 
by  Christian  Science.  This  case  was  told  to  him 
by  a  member  of  the  patient's  family.  Mr.  Purring- 
ton asked  his  informant  to  give  him  "all  the  facts"; 
but  his  letter  was  treated  as  an  offence,  and  the 
information  was  not  given.  But  he  obtained,  from 
the  attending  physicians,  "accurate  information, 
showing  my  correspondent  to  have  been  absolutely 
misinformed  in  the  premises,  however  honest  in 
belief." 

He  also  describes,  at  great  length,  an  encounter 
with  Mr.  Carol  Norton,  who  is,  or  was,  on  the 
Board  of  Lecturers  of  the  First  Church  of  Christ, 
Scientist,  the  "Mother-Church."  In  1899,  Mr. 
Norton  gave  a  lecture  (copyrighted),  in  which 
he  declared  that  Christian  Science  had  cured  loco- 
motor ataxia,  cancer,  etc. :  and  he  offered  to  give 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  143 

memcal  evidence.  A  copy  of  this  lecture  was  sent 
to  Mr.  Purrington,  who  wrote  to  him,  March  30, 
1899:  — 

...  I  should  be  veiy  much  obh'ged  to  you,  if  you  will  give 
the  names  and  addresses  of  reputable  and  competent  medical 
practitioners,  who  will  certify  to  the  second  case,  the  cure  of  an 
incurable  cancer;  the  third  case,  the  cure  of  a  child  suffering  from 
epileptic  fits  from  birth,  and  having  forty  spasms  a  day  at  the 
commencement  of  treatment;  the  fourth  case,  a  cure  of  "consump- 
tion of  the  lungs  in  the  second  stage  of  that  disease";  the  fifth  case, 
a  cure  of  a  patient  ill  with  typhoid  fever  in  Paris  and  treated  by  a 
practitioner  in  New  York;  the  eighth  case,  the  cure  of  a  lady 
forty  years  old,  unsuccessfully  treated  for  thirty-five  years  for  "or- 
ganic valvular  diseases  of  the  heart"  by  physicians  who  pronounced 
the  disease  incurable.  I  should  like  to  know  what  persons  made 
the  diagnoses  in  these  cases,  the  course  of  treatment  followed,  the 
method  taken  to  exclude  in  the  cure  other  factors  than  treatment 
by  Christian  Science,  and  the  present  condition  of  the  person 
cured. 

On  May  8,  after  a  good  deal  of  letter-writing, 
**Mr.  Norton  did  me  the  honour  of  calling,  with  the 
promised  *  medical  confirmation,'  which  consisted  in 
each  case  of  a  brief  statement  of  conclusions  signed 
by  a  Christian  Scientist.  Of  these  signers,  one  was 
said  to  have  studied  in  a  homoeopathic,  and  another 
in  a  regular  medical  college.  No  facts  were  set  forth 
upon  which  the  conclusions  were  based,  no  names  were 
connected  with  the  certificates  that  would  carry  any 
weight  with  the  general  medical  profession,  or  any 
body  of  trained  investigators." 


144  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

4.    Dr.  Buckley's  Evidence 

Dr.  Buckley,  in  a  very  careful  paper  in  the  North 
American  Review,  July  1901,  says :  "The  failures  of 
Christian  Science  are  innumerable.  Twenty  years 
ago  I  collected  vital  statistics  of  various  communistic 
institutions  which  refuse  medical  aid,  and  compared 
them  with  the  tables  of  life  insurance  companies; 
and  on  the  basis  of  the  results  of  the  comparison,  I 
predicted  that,  should  Christian  Science  at  any  time 
begin  to  spread  rapidly,  or  should  anti-medicine, 
faith-healing  institutions  be  largely  increased,  the 
number  of  deaths  would  attract  attention,  and  public 
indignation  be  excited  by  failures  to  heal  maladies 
which  ordinarily  yield  to  medical  or  surgical  treat- 
ment. This  prediction  is  now  being  fulfilled  every 
day.  Many  who  have  been  vainly  treated  by  Chris- 
tian Scientists  are  dead.  None  of  their  failures  is 
mentioned  by  the  healers,  and  few  by  living  victims, 
who  are  usually  silenced  by  shame.  One  I  met  in 
an  insane  asylum,  muttering  all  day  long,  'God 
can  never  be  sick/  " 

5.   Prof.  H.  H.  Goddard's  Evidence 

Prof.  Goddard,  like  Dr.  Huber,  prepared  a  set  of 
questions,  and  sent  them  to  persons  who  had  been 
healed  in  Christian  Science.  He  got  back  a  set  of 
answers  which  told  him  nothing.  One  answer  was 
as  follows:    "Whereas,  before  I  was  healed  from 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  145 

chronic  invalidism  through  the  teachings  of  Christian 
Science,  I  used  to  think  much  on  your  topics,  I  wish 
never  to  think  or  refer  to  them  again.  They  are 
mental  poison  to  me."  In  another  case,  the  ques- 
tions and  answers  were  as  follows :  — 

What  was  the  nature  of  your  malady? 

It  had  none. 

How  long  had  you  been  afflicted  with  it? 

Ever  since  the  belief  that  disease  was  a  substantial  reality  instead 
of  a  negation. 

How  did  you  first  discover  that  you  were  a  victim  of  disease? 
Give  fully  your  symptoms. 

By  a  consciousness  of  limitation,  i.e.  finiteness. 

How  did  the  idea  come  to  you  that  you  could  he  healed? 

The  conviction  .  .  .  that  it  was  right  to  be  well;  and  sickness 
was  a  wrong. 

Was  your  cure  instantaneous  ? 

Yes. 

How  did  you  know  that  you  were  cured? 

By  the  receding  of  disease,  and  the  corresponding  increasing 
of  health  and  strength. 

Did  you  know  it  at  the  time^  or  not  until  later? 

At  the  time ;  since  mind  first  perceiving  the  truth,  its  objective 
manifestation  begins  to  appear. 

Did  you  have  to  test  it,  before  becoming  convinced  that  a  cure 
had  actually  taken  place? 

No;  it  brought  its  own  self-evident  proof  with  it. 

6.    Dr.  Moll's  Evidence 

Dr.  Albert  Moll,  M.D.,  Berlin,  has  written  an  ad- 
mirable little  book  on  Christian  Science,  Medicine, 
and  Occultism  (translated   into   English,  and   pub- 


146  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

lished  by  Rebman,  London,  1902).  He  gives  a  good 
account  of  the  introduction  of  Christian  Science  into 
Germany,  and  of  the  growth  of  occultism  (which 
has  been  for  many  years  his  special  study)  in  Berlin. 
Of  Christian  Science,  he  says:  "My  researches  were 
made  both  in  America  and  in  Berlin,  and  my  in- 
formation is  gained  not  only  from  persons  who  have 
been  treated  by  Christian  Scientists,  but  also  from 
Christian  Science  healers  themselves,  who,  I  must 
admit,  gave  it  ungrudgingly.  .  .  .  All  the  cases 
where  a  cure  or  improvement  was  claimed,  and  which 
I  had  the  opportunity  of  seeing  and  testing  per- 
sonally, were  only  disorders  of  a  functional  character, 
such  as  hysteria,  nervous  debility,  etc.  .  .  .  These 
cases  of  hysteria,  of  general  nervous  debility,  and  of 
rheumatic  affections,  offer  a  remunerative  field  for 
the  exploits  of  psychical  treatment.  Undoubtedly  in 
the  treatment  of  many  of  these  ailments  Christian 
Science  can  boast  of  unqualified  success." 

7.   Dr.  Cabot's  Evidence 

Above  all.  Dr.  Cabot's  recent  article  in  McClure's 
Magazine  is  essential  for  the  study  of  Christian 
Science.  "Some  years  ago  I  followed  up,  so  far  as 
was  possible  through  personal  interviews  and  through 
letters,  all  the  Christian  Science  *  cures'  of  which  I 
could  hear  any  details  in  or  near  Boston.  Within  a 
short  time,  I  have  returned  to  the  subject  and  studied 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  147 

one  hundred  of  the  cases  recorded  in  the  recent 
volumes  of  the  Christian  Science  Journal.  Putting 
together  this  evidence,  and  comparing  it  with  my 
experience  regarding  the  accuracy  of  my  own  patients' 
statements  about  their  own  diseases,  past  and  present, 
my  conclusions  are,  first,  that  most  Christian  Science 
cures  are  probably  genuine;  but,  second,  that  they 
are  not  the  cures  of  organic  diseases.  In  my  own 
personal  researches  into  Christian  Science  'cures,' 
I  have  never  found  one  in  which  there  was  any  good 
evidence  that  cancer,  consumption,  or  any  other  or- 
ganic disease  had  been  arrested  or  banished.  The  diag- 
nosis was  usually  either  made  by  the  patient  himself, 
or  was  an  interpretation  at  second  or  third  hand  of 
what  a  doctor  was  supposed  to  have  said.  As  I  have 
followed  up  the  reported  cases  of 'cancer'  and  other 
malignant  tumours,  I  have  found  either  that  they 
were  not  tumours  at  all,  or  that  they  were  assumed  to 
be  malignant  without  any  microscopic  examination. 
In  other  words,  the  diagnosis  was  never  based  upon 
any  proper  evidence.  ...  By  a  curious  process 
of  'natural  selection,'  a  patient  suffering  from 
organic  disease  rarely  consults  a  Christian  Scientist, 
just  as  he  rarely  consults  an  osteopath.  Being  igno- 
rant of  diagnosis,  the  Christian  Scientist  is  not  aware 
of  this  fact,  and  supposes  that  he  is  treating,  not  a 
selected  group  of  functional  diseases,  but  all  disease. 
This  mistake  is  all  the  more  natural,  because  the 
Christian  Scientist,  with  the  natural  credulity  of  the 


148  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

half-educated,  accepts  the  patient's  diagnosis  at  its 
face  value,  or  trusts  the  hearsay  report  of  what  some 
doctor  is  supposed  to  have  said.  ...  It  is  a  striking 
fact  that,  as  one  listens  to  the  recital  of  Christian 
Science  'cures,'  one  hears  little  or  nothing  of  the 
great  common  organic  diseases,  such  as  arterio-scle- 
rosis,  phthisis,  appendicitis,  and  still  less  of  the 
common  acute  diseases,  such  as  pneumonia,  malaria, 
apoplexy.  Chronic  nervous  (that  is,  mental)  disease 
is  the  Christian  Scientist's  stock-in-trade." 


It  is  plain,  from  these  evidences,  and  from  the 
previous  chapter,  that  Christian  Science  accepts  all 
testimonials,  even  the  most  fantastical  and  illiterate. 
That  she  embellishes  what  she  publishes.*  That 
she  evades  investigation.  That  her  claim  to  cure 
organic  diseases  breaks  down  under  the  most  ele- 
mentary rules  of  criticism.  That  she  does  cure 
"functional"  diseases.  That  she  has  never  cured, 
nor  ever  will,  any  disease,  except  those  which  have 
been  cured,  a  hundred  thousand  times,  by  "mental 
therapeutics."  From  the  setting-up  of  the  brazen 
serpent  in  the  wilderness,  and  the  works  of  healing 
in  the  temples  of  iEsculapius,  mankind  has  used, 
for  better  for  worse,  mental  therapeutics.     We  live 

*  For  further  evidence,  see  Dr.  Cabot's  paper,  and  the  pam- 
phlet. The  Los  Angeles  Case. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  149 

and  move  under  suggestion,  and  are  suggested  from 
our  cradles  to  our  graves. 

There  remain  two  direct  lines  of  attack  against 
the  works  of  Christian  Science. 


Imagine  a  great  hospital,  suddenly  turned  Scientist: 
a  general  hospital  of  some  six  hundred  beds.  Think, 
what  has  been  its  daily  life.  Not  perfect,  not  fault- 
less :  among  so  many  patients  —  more  than  6000 
in-patients,  22,000  out-patients,  1700  maternity  cases 
attended  at  their  own  homes,  and  121,000  casualties, 
all  in  one  year  —  the  work  all  day,  the  work  all 
night,  the  infinite  variety  of  this  shifting  multitude 
of  diseased  and  injured  lives  —  now  and  again 
mistakes  are  made,  or  there  is  a  want  of  loving 
kindness  toward  this  or  that  patient.  Only,  think 
of  the  general  excellence  of  the  work :  the  trouble 
taken  over  obscure  cases,  the  nursing  and  watching 
and  recording  and  reporting  and  consulting,  the 
working  together  of  the  wards  and  the  laboratories, 
the  care  taken  to  treat  not  only  the  disease  but  the 
patient.  Neither  is  it  cant,  to  say  that  nobody,  save 
the  servants  of  a  great  hospital,  knows  what  good 
measure  of  spiritual  treatment,  one  way  and  another, 
it  gives  to  its  guests :   how  truly  it  is  Maison  Dieu, 

Suddenly,  Christian  Science  comes  down  like  a 
fog,  and  fills  every  ward  of  the  great  hospital.  For 
the  first  few  hours,  there  was  nothing  worse  than 


150  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

Chaos:  then,  there  was  Hell.  In  one  ward,  that 
day,  fifteen  patients  discharged  themselves,  and 
went  out,  saying  that  they  did  not  believe  in  drugs: 
two  of  them  were  on  bromide  for  epilepsy,  and  four 
were  on  iodide  for  a  contagious  disease,  and  one  was 
on  thyroid  extract.  Another  ward  had  a  case  of 
strangulated  hernia,  which  was  allowed  to  become 
gangrenous :  a  case  of  appendix-abscess,  which  was 
allowed  to  burst  into  the  peritoneal  cavity :  and  a  case 
of  empyema,  three  pints  of  pus  in  the  chest,  which 
were  not  let  out,  because  the  patient  said  that  all 
effusions  were  unreal.  In  one  medical  ward,  were 
six  cases  of  advanced  heart  disease,  who  all  got  out 
of  bed  and  took  violent  exercise.  Another  ward 
had  three  cases  of  spinal  caries  with  suppuration: 
they  also  got  out  of  bed,  and  tried  to  hang  on  gym- 
nasium bars.  The  list  of  operations  for  the  day  had 
included  two  cases  of  early  cancer,  a  chronic  ab- 
dominal obstruction,  a  fractured  skull  with  depression 
of  bone,  a  huge  ovarian  cyst,  and  a  tracheotomy. 
Nothing  was  done  for  them.  At  the  end  of  a  week 
of  the  new  dispensation.  Christian  Science  had 
killed  five-and-twenty  patients,  shortened  the  lives 
of  five-and-twenty  more,  crippled  five  permanently, 
and  caused  unnecessary  suffering  to  a  hundred  and 
fifty.  These  were  in-patients:  it  would  take  many 
pages,  to  describe  her  treatment  of  the  out-patients. 
At  a  subsequent  meeting,  at  the  Albert  Hall,  she  said 
that  the  events  of  this  black  week  had  been  "nothing 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  151 

less  than  the  demonstration  of  God's  allness  through 
true  understanding." 

•     II 

Let  Imagination  give  place  to  experience.  Here 
are  some  real  cases.  They  have,  nearly  all,  been 
sent  to  me  for  the  purpose  of  this  book :  all  but  half 
a  dozen,  which  I  have  taken  from  a  collection  of 
newspaper-cuttings.  About  a  score  of  these  cases 
have  been  sent  to  me  from  America;  but  the  great 
majority  occurred  in  England.  I  give  them  as  they 
came,  in  letters  from  friends.  Taking  them  in  this 
way,  we  have  just  a  lot  of  stories  about  Christian 
Science,  told  as  they  might  be  told  across  the  table, 
doctors  dining  together.  One  or  two  came  from 
non-medical  people:  all  the  rest  have  been  sent  to 
me  by  doctors.  The  reader  ought  to  go  over  them 
with  a  doctor,  or  with  a  medical  student,  to  see  their 
full  significance.  They  display  (i)  the  great  liking 
which  Christian  Science  has  for  the  very  worst  sort 
of  "surgical  cases";  (2)  the  cruelty  or  brutality 
which  naturally  goes  with  her  terror  of  pain  and  of 
death :  (3)  the  element  of  madness  which  is  in  her 
faith;  (4)  the  vanity  or  self-conceit  which  approves 
and  adopts  a  bastard  philosophy,  not  merely  for  its 
own  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  opposition  to  authority. 
Anyhow,  here  are  the  cases :  and  I  could  easily  have 
collected  many  more.  Indeed,  some  may  still  be  on 
their  way,  as  this  book  goes  to  press :   and  I  shall  be 


152  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

grateful  for  more  of  them,  in  view  of  the  possibility 
of  a  second  edition. 

1.  "Whatever  advantage  in  the  treatment  of  disease,  or  in  the 
stilling  of  certain  anxieties  attendant  upon  ill-health,  is  to  be  de- 
rived from  the  conviction  that  recovery  is  certain.  Christian  Science 
can  lay  some  claim  to  afford.  Such  advantage,  however,  will 
need  be  based  upon  an  effrontery  and  a  facility  for  unblushing  lying 
which  are  beyond  the  powers  of  the  common  charlatan.  I  remem- 
ber a  man,  with  a  hopeless  malignant  growth  of  the  pharynx,  whose 
last  days  were  made  quite  happy  by  the  assurance  of  a  Christian 
Scientist  that  he  would  *get  quite  well.*  In  this  comfortable  faith 
he  died.  His  visits  to  me  and  to  other  surgeons  only  added  to  his 
misery." 

2.  "I  was  called  in  consultation,  and  found  the  patient  mori- 
bund: the  history  being  that  a  'healer'  had  been  resident  in  the 
house  for  some  weeks,  but  had  given  up  the  case  a  few  days  before. 
The  case  was  one  of  tuberculosis,  the  end  being  probably  due  to 
tubercular  meningitis." 

3.  "One  patient  I  had,  who  was  the  daughter  of  a  Christian 
Scientist.  She  had  been  suffering  from  bronchial  catarrh,  which 
had  become  chronic,  and  was  a  somewhat  aggravated  case.  The 
child  had  been  for  a  considerable  period  under  the  treatment  of  a 
Christian  Scientist,  but  without  deriving  any  of  the  expected  bene- 
fits. This  the  child  was  taught  to  believe  was  due  to  her  want  of 
faith;  but,  as  the  treatment  was  absent  treatment,  I  daresay  the 
child  had  some  little  difficulty  in  arriving  at  the  heights  of  faith 
that  the  case  demanded.  After  a  while,  others  responsible  for  the 
child  intervened  and  insisted  on  her  being  placed  under  medical 
treatment,  to  which  she  quickly  responded. 

"I  had  the  pleasure  of  being  introduced  to  a  very  distinguished 
Christian  Scientist,  of  'great  scientific  attainment,'  in  the  house  of 
this  young  lady,  and  he  was  very  ready  to  enter  into  a  discussion 
to  prove  to  me  the  firm  basis  on  which  his  beliefs  were  built.     He 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  153 

was  able  to  demonstrate,  to  his  own  satisfaction,  how  matter  had 
no  real  existence,  and  that  molecules  were  simply  due  to  crossing  of 
lines  of  force :  *  and  that,  in  order  to  cause  matter  to  disappear, 
it  was  sufficient  by  a  mental  process  to  cause  these  lines  of  force  to 
uncross.  On  my  saying  that,  if  they  had  the  power  of  causing 
matter  to  disappear  by  the  uncrossing  of  these  lines,  doubtless  the 
converse  process  of  causing  them  to  cross  was  equally  open  to  them, 
in  which  case  they  would  be  able  to  create  matter,  the  good  man 
was  nothing  abashed,  and  said.  Certainly,  there  should  be  no  dif- 
ficulty in  creating  matter,  and  in  fact  he  had  been  able  to  show  on 
scientific  principles  how  the  miracles  of  Jesus  Christ  were  per- 
formed. 

"Another  case  occurred  in  a  relative,  a  young  lady,  who  was 
complaining  of  severe  pains  in  the  abdomen,  which  with  Christian 
Science  stoicism  she  persuaded  herself  had  no  real  existence. 
The  Christian  Science  treatment  was  adopted,  to  cause  'simula- 
tion of  pain'  to  disappear.     Unfortunately,  in  the  course  of  a  few 

*  The  apologists  of  Christian  Science  try  to  avail  themselves  of 
those  recent  discoveries  in  physics  which  are  associated  with  the 
names  of  Lord  Kelvin  and  Sir  J.  J.  Thomson.  Thus,  we  find 
Mr.  Dixon  quoting  Prof.  Ostwald,  and  Mr.  M'Crackan  quoting 
Prof.  Wilhelm  Muller,  and  Mr.  Maxwell  Armfield,  in  the  Daily 
News,  April  29,  1908,  saying,  "The  physical  itself  is  untrue. 
What  is  the  use  of  speaking  physically,  when  even  science  —  that 
belated  affirmer  of  truth  —  has  agreed  that  what  we  call  matter 
is  merely  electricity  vibrating  at  different  speeds  ?  It  is  too  late 
in  the  day  to  waste  time  *  speaking  physically.*  .  .  .  When  we 
realize  that  there  is  no  division  between  spirit  and  matter,  all  is 
perfectly  clear."  This  is  a  good  example  of  what  Kant  called 
metaphysical  quackery.  To  prove  the  non-reality  of  a  tumour, 
Mr.  Armfield  proclaims  the  reality  of  electricity.  And  what  shall 
we  say  of  a  Christian  Scientist  declaring  that  there  is  no  division 
between  Spirit,  which  is  God,  and  Matter,  which  is  Nothing  ? 


154  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

days,  acute  peritonitis  set  in :  and  a  surgeon  opened  the  abdomen, 
too  late  to  save  the  patient  from  the  results  of  acute  appendicitis. 
But  the  dead  tell  no  tales. 

"Another  case  occurred  to  a  young  lady  who  was  a  Christian 
Scientist  here,  suffering  from  disease  in  the  root  of  a  tooth,  which 
her  husband  persuaded  her  had  no  real  existence.  She  fell  in  with 
his  views  as  long  as  she  could  bear  the  pain :  but  despite  all  the 
prayers  delivered  over  that  tooth,  she  rushed  to  the  dentist,  scattered 
her  principles  to  the  wind  —  poor  woman,  she  went  through  a  good 
deal  before  she  succumbed." 

4.  "  I  have  had  many  amusing  experiences  of  Christian  Science : 
but  the  only  case  of  actual  harm  done  was  the  case  of  a  lady  suffering 
from  a  large  broken-down  gumma  of  the  scalp  —  a  large  sore, 
exposing  the  bone.  It  soon  healed  under  the  usual  treatment, 
after  the  Christian  Science  people  had  had  her  in  hand  for  many 
months. 

"I  had  one  lady,  a  Christian  Scientist,  whose  complaint  was 
diagnosed  and  treated  by  them  as  cancer  of  the  stomach,  until  it 
began  to  move !     I  delivered  her  of  a  very  fine  child  ! " 

5.  "Miss a  very  delicate  elderly  woman  having  obvious 

bronchitis,  was  ordered,  by  a  Christian  Science  'healer,'  to  walk 
every  day,  in  Newcastle  winter  weather,  to  her  house,  about  a 
mile  and  a  half,  for  treatment.  She  soon  became  dangerously 
ill  with  pneumonia,  and  was  at  death's  door.  She  was  pulled 
through,  by  two  doctors  who  were  sent  for  when  she  was  too  111 
to  visit  the  *  healer,'  and  who  attended  her  day  and  night." 

6.  "Some  patients  of  mine  have  become  ardent  Christian 
Scientists,  and.  In  support  of  their  convictions,  told  me  of  a  wonder- 
ful case  in  which  a  child  had  recovered  from  measles  without  any 
physic ! " 

7.  "All  whom  I  know  professing  Christian  Science  use  the  ser- 
vices of  a  doctor  as  occasion  arises." 

8.  "A  patient  was  under  my  care  for  paraplegia,  the  result 
of  a  fracture-dislocation  of  the  spine,  caused  by  a  hunting  accident. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  155 

He  left  the  Home,  after  operation,  a  little  better  in  his  limbs,  with 
a  practically  healed  bedsore,  and  some  improving  cystitis,  to  become 
a  Christian  Scientist;  and  died,  a  few  months  after,  from  septic 
poisoning,  with  a  huge  gangrenous  sore  over  the  sacrum  opening 
up  the  hip-joint,  a  large  collection  of  pus  in  the  pelvis,  and  multiple 
abscesses  in  both  kidneys,  secondary  to  an  infected  bladder.'* 

9.  (From  a  nurse.)  "A  short  time  ago,  I  was  nursing  a  lady 
who  was  dying  of  angina  pectoris.  The  attacks  of  pain  were  ter- 
rible in  their  intensity,  and  only  relieved  by  the  prompt  and  con- 
tinual applications  of  the  remedies  prescribed  by  the  physicians. 
Ten  days  before  the  patient's  death  *an  experienced  nurse*  came 
down  from  London  to  take  the  night-duty.  After  three  nights 
the  patient  asked  that  the  nurse  might  be  sent  away,  *  as  she  refuses 
to  give  me  my  medicine  or  any  help  when  I  am  in  pain.*  Being 
questioned,  the  nurse  said,  *I  have  become  a  Christian  Scientist, 
and  do  not  believe  your  patient  is  in  pain;  nor  do  I  think  she  will 
die,  if  she  will  have  faith.*  The  patient  died  seven  days  later. 
The  nurse,  I  have  since  heard,  has  had  to  leave  several  cases,  be- 
cause of  her  'neglect*  of  patients,  and  their  consequently  increased 
suffering.**  * 

*  For  an  extreme  case  of  Christian  Science  "nursing,**  we 
have  the  inquest  (Jan.  ii,  1908)  on  Mrs.  Dixon,  of  Richmond, 
who  died  of  bronchitis  without  medical  attendance.  She  had 
two  Christian  Scientists  who  were  supposed  to  be  helping  her. 

One  of  them,  Mrs.  ,  gave  evidence  that  she  neither  sent  for 

a  doctor,  nor  gave  the  patient  any  material  remedies,  nor  had 
any  experience  of  such  cases,  nor  had  any  fear  of  what  she  was 

doing.     The  other.  Nurse  ,  gave  evidence  that  she  neither 

felt  the  patient*s  pulse,  nor  made  any  examination,  nor  prayed 
for  her:  gave  her  beef-tea,  and  a  hot-water  bottle,  but  would 
not  give  her  brandy,  sal-volatile,  or  a  poultice:  would  leave  it 
to  a  person  whose  intellect  was  clouded  somewhat  by  the  ap- 
proach of  death  to  decide  whether  to  have  or  not  to  have  a  doc- 


156  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

10.  "Mrs. became  a  Christian  Scientist  after  developing 

an  internal  cancer.     They  went  to  live  at ,  in  order  to  be  near 

Christian  Science  workers  there,  so  that  the  'treatment*  might  be 
continued,  and  presently  she  died  there.  No  one  in  the  house- 
hold shared  her  views;  and,  a  day  or  two  before  she  died,  a  doctor 
was  called  in,  so  the  necessity  for  an  inquest  was  avoided.  She 
had  a  great  desire  to  live,  and  told  me  herself  she  would  not  die." 

11.  "One  of  their  chief  men  here  is  a  solicitor  who  was  doing 
a  very  small  practice,  chiefly  in  the  police-courts,  until  he  took  up 
Christian  Science.  He  then  found  the  latter  so  lucrative  that  he 
gave  up  practising  the  law,  and  now  fattens  upon  his  victims." 

12.  "It  was  a  case  of  advanced  heart  disease,  with  dilatation, 
dropsy,  and  the  worst  outcome  of  valvular  disease  which  no  longer 
yielded  to  treatment.  The  case  was  obviously  hopeless,  and  I 
only  saw  the  patient  once.  Christian  Science  ministration  was  then 
begun.  It  had  long  been  strongly  urged  by  relations.  The  patient 
died  within  two  weeks  of  my  visit  with  his  regular  attendant,  who 
was  dismissed.  I  have  heard  of  several  other  cases  where  patients 
have  clearly  been  left  to  die  without  appropriate  treatment." 

13.  "Two  cases  of  Christian  Science  treatment  have  come  under 

my  care   at  Friedenheim.     (i)  Mrs.  ,  admitted   June  6th, 

suffering  from  fibro-cystic  disease  of  breast  and  forehead.  Her 
son  wrote,  on  the  application  form,  *  She  has  been  for  some  months 
under  the  influence  of  the  Christian  Scientists,  and  has  been  buoyed 
up  by  hopes  of  recovery  through  their  mediation.  She  now  realises 
her  mistake,  and  is  quite  willing  to  have  medical  supervision.  I 
took  her  to  Guy's  Hospital,  but  the  House  Surgeon  pronounced 
the  case  absolutely  beyond  hope  of  recovery.'  This  patient,  how- 
ever, was  again  brought  under  their  influence,  and  removed  on 
June  14th.     (2)  Mr.  ,  admitted  April  14th,  suffering  from 

tor.     To   many  questions.  Nurse  gave  no   answer,  not  a 

word.  But  she  did  say  that  surgery  is  allowed,  in  Christian 
Science,  for  setting  bones  only,  not  for  operations, 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  157 

chronic  pulmonary  tuberculosis.  Came  under  the  influence  of 
Christian  Scientists,  and  discharged  himself  that  he  might  be  under 
their  care,  on  June  13th.     He  died  nine  days  later." 

14.  "My  sole  experience  is  that  of  a  neurotic  lady  who  paid 
Christian  Science  £1  a  week  for  some  time  to  *  think*  about  her. 
After  a  month,  £1  z  week  proving  insufficient  for  a  cure,  she  paid 
£2  for  a  proportionate  extra  amount  of  thought;  but  the  eagerly 
expected  miracle  not  being  forthcoming,  she  dropped  the  payment, 
and  spent  subsequently  about  £^  on  high-frequency  treatment, 
with  excellent  results." 

15.  "A  woman  ran  a  splinter  into  her  thumb,  which  became 
septic.  She  went  to  a  Christian  Scientist,  who  *  treated'  her  for  a 
fortnight.  When  she  eventually  came  to  St.  Bartholomew's 
Hospital,  the  thumb  had  to  be  amputated  at  once.  It  was  the  right 
thumb:  and  the  woman  formerly  earned  her  living  by  sewing. 
This  is  the  only  case  I  have  come  across  personally :  of  course  I 
have  heard  of  many  more." 

16.  **A  gentleman,  past  middle  life,  was  brought  home  to  Lon- 
don in  an  advanced  stage  of  general  tuberculosis:  both  lungs 
riddled  with  cavities,  abdomen  full  of  fluid,  widespread  cedema, 
laryngeal  involvement.  Some  friend,  who  was  a  Christian  Sci- 
ence enthusiast,  persuaded  them  to  try  a  *  healer.*  The  Christian 
Science  gentleman  came,  and  promised  rapid  amelioration  if  he 
would  but  follow  his  methods.  In  two  days,  the  sick  man  died. 
No  power  on  earth  could  have  even  made  him  temporarily  better. 
The  *  healer*  charged  a  fee;   how  much,  I  do  not  know.'* 

17.  "I  know  a  case  of  a  young  adult,  who  suffered  seriously 
from  bleeding  from  the  bowel.  The  patient  was  treated  by  Chris- 
tian Science  and  got  gradually  worse.  Another  doctor  and  I  were 
called  in  shortly  before  death.  The  patient  was  then  completely 
blanched  from  loss  of  blood,  and  beyond  medical  aid.  The  patient 
died  very  shortly  after  my  visit.  There  is  little  doubt  that,  had 
doctors  seen  this  patient  earlier,  the  life  might  have  been 
saved.** 


158  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

18.  "The  only  case  which  I  have  seen  after  Christian  Science 
treatment  was  a  fractured  coccyx  in  an  elderly  lady,  which  under 
Christian  Science  had  got  fixed  in  a  position  which  gave  great  pain : 
but  I  only  saw  her  once,  as  I  suggested  operation." 

19.  "I  have  heard  of  several  cases  of  Christian  Science  treat- 
ment, and  I  have  met  with  some  in  my  practice,  but  fear  I  have 
kept  no  note  of  them.  The  one  case  which  impressed  itself  on  my 
memory  is  as  follows :  A  child  suffering  from  diphtheria  was  treated 
by  Christian  Scientists  until  it  died.  As  the  case  was  not  seen 
medically,  no  diagnosis  was  made.  Other  children  attending  the 
same  school  were  allowed  to  see  and  play  with  the  child,  and  one 
little  child  that  I  knew  contracted  diphtheria.  I  think  there  were 
three  children,  altogether,  took  diphtheria  from  this  one  case." 

20.  "The  only  case  in  my  own  practice  that  I  think  would  be 
useful  for  your  purpose,  is  that  of  a  young  man,  of  about  19,  who 
had  suffered  for  years  from  severe  epileptic  attacks.  These  had 
been  kept  in  check  by  the  regular  use  of  bromides.  The  parents 
came  under  the  influence  of  a  Christian  Science  *  healer,*  who  prom- 
ised to  cure  the  lad,  and  insisted  on  all  drugs  being  discontinued. 
As  soon  as  the  influence  of  the  bromide  had  passed  away,  the  fits 
came  on  with  exceptional  severity,  and  I  was  hurriedly  summoned. 
The  bromides  were  again  resumed,  and  the  fits  brought  under  con- 
trol as  before.'*  ^ 

21.  "I  was  recently  called  in  consultation  to  see  a  lady  with 
a  very  large  ovarian  malignant  cystic  tumour,  which  had  been 
ruptured  by  a  slight  accident  the  day  before,  and  necessitated  im- 
mediate operation.  I  was  informed  that  some  time  previously 
she  had  become  a  Christian  Scientist,  and,  in  spite  of  much  internal 
pain  and  discomfort,  associated  with  marked  enlargement  of  the 
abdomen,  refused  to  admit  that  there  was  anything  the  matter  with 
her,  and  declined  to  see  a  medical  man.  She  recovered  from  the 
operation :  but  the  peritoneum  had  become  infected  by  the  bursting 
of  the  cyst,  and  in  a  few  months  numerous  malignant  growths 
developed  in  the  abdomen.     Had  she  been  operated  upon  when 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  159 

she  first  began  to  suffer  from  symptoms,  a  valuable  life  might  have 
been  spared/* 

22.  "I  am  afraid  I  cannot  supply  you  with  any  specific  cases 
of  'Christian  Science.'  My  experience  is,  that  most  patients  who 
have,  previous  to  their  having  taken  medical  or  surgical  advice, 
indulged  in  this  fashionable  form  of  quackery,  are  prone  to  con- 
ceal the  fact!" 

23.  "I  have  not  in  my  personal  experience  come  across  cases 
in  which  Christian  Science  has  done  harm.  I  know,  of  course, 
of  plenty  in  which  no  good  was  done." 

24.  "  I  saw  a  lady,  years  ago :  she  was  dying  of  cancer  of  the 
liver.  We,  of  course,  could  do  nothing  for  her,  and  were  only 
there  by  the  desire  of  her  husband.  But  I  believe  the  *  healer* 
ministered  to  her  until  her  death;  and  I  hope,  indeed  think,  that 
she  may  have  been  of  some  use  in  smoothing  her  passage  across 
the  bar.  And  now  I  am  writing,  I  shall  go  on  to  say  that  I  am 
almost  sorry  you  are  writing  your  book  because,  as  one  who  is 
largely  concerned  with  the  neurotic  element  in  disease,  I  would 
that  many  more  miserable  men  and  women  could  hang  on  to 
some  belief  that  lifted  them  out  of  themselves;  rather  than  into 
the  hands  of  us  doctors,  as  into  a  chemist's  shop.  The  name 
'Christian  Science'  is  objectionable:  but  if  we  preach  mental 
physiology  only,  which  it  is,  no  one  listens.  I  talk  common- 
sense  physiology  to  these  people,  and  often  enough  they  go  away 
in  the  frame  of  mind  of  Naaman  the  Leper.  But  call  the  same 
thing  'Christian  Science,'  and  it  is  something  quite  different,  and 
seems  really  to  rescue  some  of  these  cases  for  a  useful  life." 

25.  "The  patient  had  had  an  early  carcinoma  (cancer);  diag- 
nosed by ,  of  Guy's,  who  said  it  was  a  very  favourable  case 

for  operation.  She  was  going  to  have  it  removed,  when  a  relative, 
who  is  an  ardent  Christian  Scientist,  persuaded  her  very  strongly 
to  have  it  treated  by  Christian  Science.  I  only  saw  her  in  the 
last  stages  of  the  disease,  when  any  form  of  treatment  was  abso- 
lutely hopeless.     The  Christian  Science  folk  tried  to  buoy  her  up 


i6o  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

to  the  last,  but  her  husband  (it  was  at  the  time  of  the  Boer  War) 
only  just  got  back  from  Pretoria  a  day  or  two  before  she  died. 
It  doesn't  sound  much  of  a  case  now,  but  in  real  life  it  was  a 
heartrending  one,  as  the  husband  and  wife  were  very  much  in 
love  with  one  another." 

26.  "A  man,  suffering  great  abdominal  pain,  was  assured  by 
a  Christian  Scientist  that  he  ought  not  to  think  about  it,  etc. 
The  pain  continued  (for  two  or  three  days),  but  no  doctor  was 
called  in,  because  the  patient  was  so  positively  assured  by  the 
Scientist  that  the  pain  was  'imagination/  At  last,  a  doctor  was 
sent  for,  who  found  appendicitis,  and  said  that  an  immediate 
operation  was  necessary.  It  was  refused  for  some  hours,  that 
the  patient  might  set  his  affairs  in  order.  During  this  delay,  the 
abscess  gave  way  into  the  peritoneal  cavity,  and  the  patient  died 
in  a  few  hours,  without  operation." 

27.  "A  Christian  Scientist  lady  refused  to  apply  to  a  doctor 
until  one  of  her  limbs,  which  had  been  poisoned,  gave  her  such 
agony  she  could  no  longer  endure  it.  It  was  then  found  to  be 
in  such  a  condition  that  it  was  feared  amputation  was  the  only 
possible  course.  However,  after  most  careful  medical  treatment 
and  assiduous  nursing  day  and  night  —  first  by  a  delicate  sister, 
who  broke  down  under  the  strain,  and  then  by  a  nurse,  the  limb 
was  saved :  after  the  greatest  anxiety  and  fatigue  and  heavy  ex- 
pense to  the  family." 

28.  "I  can  only  recall  two  cases,  (i)  A  breast-carcinoma, 
treated  by  prayers  for  two  years,  and,  when  seen  by  me,  inoper- 
able. (2)  A  myoma  uteri,  prayed  over  for  five  years,  until  it 
blocked  the  pelvis  and  led  to  ascending  ureteritis  and  pyelo- 
nephritis with  rigors.  I  declined  to  operate,  and  the  patient  died 
of  uraemia  in  ten  days.  These  two  deaths  due  to  Christian  Science 
sum  up  my  total  record  of  Christian  Science." 

29.  **An  elderly  lady  took  up  with  Christian  Science,  to  her 
great  advantage  and  benefit,  having  been  all  her  life  a  more  or 
less  neurotic  subject j   but  in  reality  she  had  had  excellent  health, 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  i6i 

and  was  young  for  her  age.  During  the  years  she  was  a  Scientist, 
she  had  perfect  health,  no  neuralgias,  headaches,  or  other  ail- 
ments, and  was  able  to  walk  as  she  had  never  done  before.  Un- 
fortunately, she  got  influenza,  and  with  it  double  pneumonia: 
and  they  sent  for  her  usual  medical  attendant  and  for  me.  We 
thought  she  would  probably  die.  She  was  satisfied  by  that  time 
with  Christian  Science:  indeed,  she  was  too  ill,  when  first  seen, 
to  have  a  will  of  her  own.  She  got  quite  well  from  her  pneu- 
monia; but  gradually  all  her  aches  and  pains  have  returned,  and 
I  am  sorry  to  say  more  real  now  than  of  yore,  as  she  has  just  had 
herpes,  with  much  neuralgic  pain." 

30.  "Of  course,  I  have  had  an  interesting  experience  with 
Christian  Science.  A  craze  of  that  sort  does  not  reach  its  present 
proportions  without  a  little  of  the  ferment  of  truth,  and  there  is  a 
good  feature  which  I  think  we  must  all  recognise  in  insisting  upon 
the  influence  of  the  mind  on  the  body.  The  trouble  comes  from 
the  appalling  ignorance  of  elementary  facts  in  Nature,  which,  of 
course,  from  their  standpoint  are  non-existent.  Among  the  most 
glaring  instances  I  recall,  are  the  following:  A  California  boy, 
of  13  or  14,  with  a  helpless  and  hopeless  congenital  brain  defect, 
causing  the  well-known  disease,  bilateral  athetosis,  was  under  the 
Boston  high  priests  for  six  weeks  with  a  promise  of  full  cure.  A 
young  woman  with  spinal  caries,  who  suff"ered  severely  and  be- 
came paraplegic,  was  prayed  over  for  months  without  any  avail, 
and  of  course  valuable  time  was  lost.  A  recent  case  illustrates 
the  shamefaced  audacity  which  comes  from  abysmal  ignorance  — 
at  the  insistence  of  relatives,  and  against  the  wish  of  the  patient 
himself,  a  Christian  Scientist  was  introduced  into  the  house  in  the 
case  of  a  chronic  malady,  the  utterly  hopeless  nature  of  which 
could  have  been  appreciated  by  a  ten-year-old  child.  I  do  not 
know  whether  it  is  worth  while  wasting  powder  and  shot  in  the 
attempt  to  protect  the  public  from  their  own  folly  —  Populus 
vult,  etc." 

31.  "An  invalid  friend,  Miss  B ,  who  lived  with  me,  put 

M 


1 62  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

herself  under  Christian  Science  treatment :  that  is,  she  was  visited 
several  times,  and  had  a  good  deal  of  twaddle  talked  to  her.  She 
has  been  suffering  for  six  years  from  paralysis  agitans,  and  has 
been  told  by  several  doctors  that  she  is  incurable.  She  is  in  a 
very  helpless  state,  just  able  to  walk,  but  not  without  support, 
and  unable  to  feed  herself  or  to  wash  her  own  hands.  This 
Christian  Scientist  who  visited  her,  Mrs.  A.,  invited  Miss  B.  to 
stay  with  her,  saying  that  in  two  or  three  weeks  she  would  be 
cured,  and  be  able  to  go  back  to  her  work.  I  tried  to  dissuade 
them  both,  pointing  out  to  Mrs.  A.  how  much  care  and  nursing 
Miss  B.  required,  but  she  said:  *Oh  dear  no,  she  will  soon  want 
none  at  all,*  and  told  me  that  she  herself  had  been  cured  by  Chris- 
tian Science  when  she  was  far  more  helpless.  I  had  heard  that 
Mrs.  A.'s  disease  had  been  purely  imaginary,  so  I  suggested 
mildly  that  one  complaint  differed  from  another,  but  she  would 
not  admit  it.  At  any  rate.  Miss  B.  went  to  C ,  Mrs.  A.  tak- 
ing her  down  in  a  motor-car,  or,  as  she  put  it  in  their  scientific 
way,  *on  the  wings  of  love.'  Miss  B.  came  back  a  fortnight  later, 
dreadfully  upset  and  hysterical,  and  very  weak  and  almost  speech- 
less.    Fortunately,  her  sister  lives  at  C ,  and  found  out  how 

they  were  treating  her.  The  sister  came  to  me  boiling  with  in- 
dignation, and  told  the  whole  tale.  Apparently  Mrs.  A.  and 
the  nurse  tried  to  stimulate  Miss  B.  by  neglect,  and  she  had  not 
responded  well,  owing  to  want  of  faith.  They  left  her  to  stand 
by  herself,  and  when  she  fell  down  they  told  her  to  get  up,  which 
she  could  not  do.  They  refused  to  help  her,  and  she  began  to 
cry.  Whereupon  they  said,  *If  you  don't  stop  crying,  we  shall 
go  away  and  leave  you*:  and  they  did  leave  her  alone  in  the 
room,  lying  shrieking  on  the  floor,  for  some  time.  When  she 
came  back,  she  was  worse  than  I  ever  saw  her,  and  it  was  quite 
three  weeks  before  she  returned  to  her  usual  state.  I  do  not 
really  suppose  there  was  lasting  harm  done,  for  I  put  down  her 
increasing  ill-health  ever  since  to  the  natural  progress  of  the  dis- 
ease:   it  was  the  moral  side  of  the  business  that  shocked  me. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  163 

The  callousness  and  brutality  that  were  shown,  the  absence  of 
pity  for  a  helpless  patient,  and  the  humbugging  talk  it  was  all 
wrapped  up  in,  really  made  me  shudder.  I  have  no  patience 
now  with  the  smooth  things  people  say  at  Congresses,  about 
Christian  Science  being  practically  useful  though  based  on  bad 
metaphysics."  * 

32.    "Mrs.  came  to  see  me  in  July,  as  she  had  noticed  a 

lump  in  her  breast:  she  was  accompanied  by  her  husband.  It 
was  perfectly  obvious  that  the  tumour  was  malignant.  I  gave 
that  as  my  opinion,  and  advised  a  second  doctor  being  called  in, 
with  a  view  to  its  early  removal.  They  left  me  with  the  names 
of  three  surgeons,  one  of  whom  I  advised  them  to  see.  I  did  not 
see  the  patient  again  till  September,  when  she  and  her  husband 
called,  to  show  me  *how  wrong  my  diagnosis  was.*  On  examina- 
tion, I  found  the  growth  to  be  considerably  larger,  and  there  were 
then  glands  to  be  felt  under  the  edge  of  the  pectoral  muscle. 
The  husband  told  me  that  the  *  improvement*  followed  on  Chris- 
tian Science  treatment.  I  agreed  with  him  that  the  general  con- 
dition of  Mrs. was  vastly  improved,  but  I  took  him  on  one 

side  and  told  him  that  the  growth  was  bigger,  that  there  were 
now  glands,  and  that  the  delay  had  imperilled  the  success  of  an 
operation.  To  my  surprise,  he  took  no  notice  of  what  I  said, 
but  merely  gave  me  a  lecture  on  the  prevailing  sin  of  blindness, 

*  Even  Miss  Reed,  who  said  these  smooth  things  at  the  time 
of  the  Pan- Anglican  Congress,  says:  "When  it  is  possible  for  a 
Christian  Scientist  to  live,  as  they  frequently  do,  in  the  midst  of 
awful  scenes  of  suffering,  without  one  expression  of  regret  or  one 
physical  manifestation  of  sympathy,  we  can  easily  account  for 
their  high  degree  of  Vital  resistance.*  This  brings  us  face  to 
face  with  one  of  the  saddest  of  facts  regarding  Christian  Science, 
that  true  womanly  sympathy  is  being  imperilled  by  the  preva- 
lence of  this  philosophy  which  robs  sorrow  of  its  reality  and  makes 
pain  a  delusion." 


i64  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

as  both  he  and  his  wife  had  watched  the  gradual  disappearance 
of  the  lump!  The  *  treatment*  continued  till  the  end  of  Novem- 
ber, when  I  saw  her  for  the  last  time :  the  grqwth  had  fungated, 
which  they  were  told  was  a  good  sign,  and  they  believed  it  I  She 
died  from  septic  absorption  in  January." 

33.  "I  operated  on  a  woman,  at  the  County  Hospital, 

for  a  large  uterine  myoma.  She  told  me  that  she  had  been  under 
treatment  from  the  Christian  Scientists  for  her  tumour  for  nearly 
two  years.  The  abdomen  had  steadily  increased  in  size,  and 
having  spent  all  her  money  she  came  to  the  Hospital.  She  made 
a  good  recovery  both  in  body  and  mind,  for  she  spoke  of  the 
folly  or  fraud  of  her  former  advisers." 

34.  "My  experience  of  the  practical  side  of  Christian  Science 
is  restricted  to  one  case,  that  of  a  gentleman  who  suffered  from 
locomotor  ataxia,  one  symptom  of  which  is  difficulty  in  walking. 
His  wife,  a  Christian  Scientist,  roundly  declared  that  he  was  not 
in  the  least  paralysed,  that  he  could  walk  quite  well;  and,  of 
course,  pressed  her  point  of  view :  with  the  result  that  this  poor 
man  fell  and  cut  his  forehead.  Yet  he  was  told  there  was  no  cut, 
and  that  therefore  there  was  no  pain  nor  any  bleeding.  In  a 
few  months  after  this,  the  poor  gentleman  died  from  his  nerve 
disease." 

35.  "I  am  now  lamenting  the  early  death  of  a  dear  relative, 
who  for  years  suffered  from  cancer.  If  it  were  not  that  her  hus- 
band followed  to  a  certain  extent  this  creed,  the  surgeon  would 
have  stepped  in,  to  relieve,  if  not  to  cure,  the  patient.  My  rela- 
tive was  allowed  to  suffer  and  to  die  without  an  attempt  by  surgery 
to  relieve  the  symptoms  or  prolong  life." 

36.  "I  have  known  several  cases  of  serious  illness  subjected 
to  Christian  Science  treatment,  but  I  have  never  known  it  to 
effect  a  cure.  In  most  cases  the  symptoms  were  mitigated,  but 
the  patient  died  of  the  disease.  On  the  other  hand,  I  have  seen 
nervous  complaints  permanently  improved.  In  every  case  the 
treatment  appeared  to  be  identical  with  animal  magnetism.  .  .  . 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  165 

One  word  as  to  the  cases  said  to  recover  after  being  *  given  up 
by  the  doctors.*  The  only  one  of  which  I  have  personal  know- 
ledge proved  on  inquiry  to  be  a  neurotic  patient  whose  doctor  had 
given  her  up,  not  because  her  case  was  hopeless,  but  because  he 
told  her  frankly  that  drugs  would  not  cure  her,  but  fresh  air,  and 
a  simple  and  healthy  life,  probably  would." 

7^"],  "At  one  time  I  was  almost  converted  to  their  views.  Be- 
ing told  that  daily  perusal  of  Science  and  Health  was  absolutely 
necessary,  I  paid  fourteen  shillings  for  a  copy,  and  read  it  from 
cover  to  cover.  I  was  completely  cured,  not  of  my  fibroid  tumour 
and  other  ills,  but  of  any  desire  to  become  a  follower  of  the  author 
of  that  illuminating  volume.  Possibly  the  failure  of  my  *  healer' 
to  make  a  cure,  added  to  the  loss  of  a  very  dear  relative  who 
firmly  believed  in  the  doctrines  of  Christian  Science,  and  yet  who 
passed  away  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  two  healers  —  may  have 
helped  to  disillusion  me.  To  be  told  that  'error  had  crept  in 
somewhere,'  was  neither  comforting  nor  convincing." 

38.  "A  near  relative  of  mine  (hopeless  tuberculosis)  deter- 
mined as  a  last  resource  to  have  Christian  Science  treatment.  A 
healer  came  down  from  London,  and  was  most  kind  and  helpful 
as  a  nurse,  and  succeeded  in  inspiring  the  utmost  confidence  in 
all  concerned.  For  a  few  weeks  the  treatment  was  apparently 
successful,  but  she  then  required  a  second  healer  for  absent  treat- 
ment to  be  engaged.  This  was  done,  and  it  was  found  necessary 
that  this  healer  should  also  come  down  and  see  the  patient  occa- 
sionally. After  about  two  months  of  this  treatment,  no  perma- 
nent cure  seeming  likely,  it  was  suggested  that  the  patient  should 
go  up  to  London,  to  be  in  the  midst  of  Christian  Scientists  and 
to  attend  lectures.  The  dear  child  became  rapidly  worse  from 
the  moment  she  reached  town,  and,  in  just  three  weeks  after, 
she  breathed  her  last.  The  healer  up  to  the  very  last  assured 
her  mother  that  it  was  impossible  she  could  die,  and,  even  after 
her  spirit  left  her,  said,  *She  is  not  dead,  not  the  real  child;  she 
is  still  alive.*" 


1 66  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

39.  The  Daily  Telegraphy  September  6,  1907,  reports  that  on 
Wednesday,  September  4,  1907,  in  the  First  Church  of  Christ, 
Scientist,  New  York,  a  man  called  Clarence  Byrne  "made  a 
scene."  He  had  just  done  thirty  days'  hard  labour  in  gaol,  he 
said,  because  he,  following  the  tenets  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  allowed  his 
six  year  old  daughter  to  die  of  pneumonia  without  medical  atten- 
tion. "Inquiries  made  to-day  among  the  Christian  Scientists 
result  in  the  repudiation  by  them  of  Byrne  as  a  Christian  Scien- 
tist, and  to  say  that  he  has  been  a  healer  they  declare  is  prepos- 
terous. His  object,  they  allege,  in  making  a  scene  in  the  church 
last  night  was  merely  to  secure  advertisement  for  the  'Divine 
Metaphysics  Church,*  which  he  helped  to  establish,  and  which 
preaches  the  Eddy  doctrine  in  a  modified  form."  It  appears 
that  Byrne  spoke  so  low  that  not  many  heard  what  he  said.  That 
is  not  like  an  impostor.  "I  have  done  with  Christian  Science," 
he  said.  "My  eyes  have  been  opened.  You  don't  go  out  into 
the  highways  and  bye-ways,  seeking  the  poor  and  afflicted  whom 
Christ  loved,  and  whom  the  Salvation  Army  in  these  days  seeks 
first,  last,  and  all  the  time.  You  are  blinded  by  love  of  gold. 
My  daughter  died  under  the  treatment  of  healer  John  Roberts, 
and  I  was  arrested  because  I  had  no  death  certificate.  I  bear 
malice  against  none.  The  reason  why  I  cannot  longer  worship 
in  this  church  is  that,  while  I  was  bearing  my  cross,  this  congre- 
gation, through  one  of  its  representatives,  publicly  repudiated  me 
as  one  not  of  the  faith,  and  cast  me  out.  When  I  needed  com- 
fort I  was  passed  by  on  the  other  side,  as  the  priest  and  Levite 
of  the  parable  passed  by  the  wounded  man.  I  have  been  a  Chris- 
tian Scientist  for  twelve  years.  My  wife,  and  three  children  of 
ten  that  I  had  born  to  me,  died  under  Christian  Science  minis- 
trations, and  yet  I  remained  true  to  the  faith.  Yet,  at  the  hour 
of  my  great  need,  there  was  no  one  to  bring  me  comfort." 

40.  "A  woman  living  in  this  village  had  for  two  years  been 
taking  bromide,  and  had  been  at  home  in  poor  health  that  length 
of  time,  suffering  from  depression.     She  came  into  my  service 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  167 

about  three  or  four  years  ago  as  a  temporary  parlour-maid  for  a 
couple  of  months,  during  which  time  she  took  her  bromide  regu- 
larly, and  was  able  to  earn  her  living.  She  then  went  as  parlour- 
maid to  Mrs. ,  a  Christian  Scientist,  who  told  her  not  to  take 

any  medicine.  Before  long  she  had  to  leave  ill,  and  was  subse- 
quently taken  to  the  Asylum.  She  recovered  after  a  time,  and 
returned  home,  and  is  now  earning  her  living  in  a  doctor's  house 
as  a  domestic  servant,  where  she  takes  bromide  regularly. 

"  Some  two  years  ago  an  assistant  master  at was  suffering 

from  phthisis.  He  got  into  the  hands  of  the  Christian  Scientists, 
who  placed  him  in  London  with  one  of  their  persuasion  in  a  sort 
of  home,  where  they  prayed  over  him  until  he  died,  without  hav- 
ing any  medical  attention." 

41.  (From  a  schoolmaster.)  "Here,  and  personally,  I  have 
only  come  into  contact  with  so-called  Christian  Science  in  iso- 
lated and  curious  cases :  of  which  the  oddest  is  that  of  a  Chris- 
tian Science  mother,  who  told  her  boy  at  school  that  of  course 
he  could  do  no  wrong,  but  that  miscreant  masters  would  at  times 
punish  him,  and  he  must  regard  that  as  merely  a  freak  of  igno- 
rance on  their  part.  (It  did  not  prevent  his  having  to  suffer  punish- 
ment.) Another,  whose  son  was  ill  —  I  think  it  was  pleurisy  — 
said  she  could  see  nothing  wrong  with  him,  but,  when  pressed 
to  allow  medical  advice,  shrugged  her  shoulders,  and  said,  'Well, 
it  is  for  him  to  decide,  if  he  thinks  he  is  ill*;  and,  fortunately,  he 
did  decide  on  medical  assistance. 

"I  found rabid  against  Christian  Science.  She  is  a  Guar- 
dian on  the  Union.  She  quoted  these  cases:  —  (i)  A  con- 
sumptive boy,  dying  in  the  Infirmary,  was  in  the  last  stages,  and 
all  that  could  be  done  for  him  was  done.  To  him  enter  the  local 
Christian  Science  lady,  who  insisted  that  he  wasn't  ill,  but  only 
wicked,  and  frightened  him  so  much,  by  her  denunciation  of  the 
sinfulness  of  belief  in  ill-health,  that  he  had  a  bad  fit  of  cough- 
ing, haemorrhage,  great  pain,  and  died  within  a  day  or  two.  (2)  A 
local   lady  had   a   French   maid   suffering  from   dementia;    but, 


i68  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

being  Christian  Scientist,  refused  to  have  her  examined,  saying 
there  was  no  madness.  The  cook,  frightened  by  some  act,  ap- 
pealed to  the  police,  and  had  her  then  removed  to  the  Infirmary; 
vsrhere  she  was  certified  insane,  and  discharged  after  a  week  to 
her  relations  in  France.  The  Christian  Science  people  refused 
to  assist  or  pay  expenses  for  her,  saying  she  had  left  their  service 
voluntarily.  (3)  Thirdly,  she  quoted  an  exact  parallel  to  the 
case  that  you  quote:  ulcer  on  the  stomach,  and  solid  food  given 
by  a  Christian  Scientist." 

42.  (From  an  American  doctor.)  "In  response  to  your  in- 
quiry concerning  the  results  of  Christian  Science  treatment,  will 
say  that  I  have  had  several  cases  illustrating  what  a  wretched 
business  the  whole  thing  is.  I  will  give  you  but  one.  I  was 
called  in  this  city  to  see  a  young  mother  with  three  children,  the 
oldest  not  more  than  eight  years  of  age.  The  moment  I  entered 
the  sick  chamber,  it  was  apparent  to  me  that  the  woman  was 
desperately  ill,  and  I  naturally  inquired  if  they  had  not  had  a 
medical  attendant.  Almost  too  full  for  words,  the  husband  re- 
plied, *No,  Doctor,  she  has  been  treated  by  Christian  Science.* 
An  examination  revealed  a  diffuse  peritonitis,  originating  from 
infection  of  the  tubes.  I  told  them  that  it  was  probably  too  late 
for  an  operation,  but  that  her  only  hope  of  recovery  lay  in  that 
direction.  They  earnestly  requested  me  to  operate,  which  I  did 
after  telling  them  very  plainly  that,  in  all  probability,  she  would 
die,  and  if  so,  I  wanted  them  to  know  that  her  life  had  been  sacri- 
ficed on  the  altar  of  a  terrible  fraud.  I  operated.  The  woman 
died.  A  post-mortem  examination  revealed  the  fact  that  her 
trouble  originated  in  an  infected  tube,  which  might  and  would 
have  been  removed  without  danger  had  she  consulted  an  intelli- 
gent practitioner.  Wishing  you  every  success  in  your  endeavour 
to  curtail  the  dreadful  harm  that  is  being  done  by  this  fraud." 

43.  (From  an  American  doctor.)  "Mrs.  — —  of  this  city, 
about  36  years  old,  a  strong,  robust  woman,  had  a  slight  mitral 
insufficiency  which  at  times  would  give  her  some  trouble  after 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  169 

severe  exercise,  showing  a  lack  of  compensation ;  but  a  few  days* 
rest  and  the  use  of  digitalis  would  give  relief,  and  for  months  she 
would  seemingly  be  as  well  as  ever.  She  became  a  convert  to 
Christian  Science,  and  later  had  one  of  her  attacks,  and  went  to 
the  home  of  a  'healer,'  near  her  house,  for  treatment.  She  was 
not  put  at  rest,  was  encouraged  to  take  exercise,  and  became 
rapidly  worse :  at  which  time  some  of  her  friends  interfered  and 
asked  me  to  see  her,  which  I  did  at  the  'healer's'  home.  I  found 
her  walking  about  her  room  with  the  assistance  of  two  of  the 
elect,  being  markedly  cyanotic  and  almost  pulseless,  yet  I  was 
assured  she  was  improving  rapidly;  her  husband  was  some  dis- 
tance from  home,  and  had  not  been  notified  of  her  illness,  and 
when  I  assured  the  people  she  was  dying,  and  could  not  possibly 
live  until  her  husband  had  been  communicated  with,  I  was  made 
the  subject  of  ridicule.     She  died  within  a  few  hours.* 

"A  young  man,  recently  married,  whose  mother  was  a  'healer,* 
was  taken  sick,  and,  diphtheria  being  suspected,  a  physician 
was  called  to  make  a  diagnosis,  so  that  the  quarantine-law  might 
be  complied  with.  His  services  were  then  dispensed  with,  and 
the  use  of  antitoxin  was  denied.  The  mother  assumed  charge  of 
the  case;   and  death  resulted  in  a  few  days. 

"Some  months  later  his  wife  was  confined;  and,  without  any 
assistance,  she  suffered  the  agonies  of  childbirth  for  about  four 
days;  when  I  was  called,  found  a  face  presenting,  and  delivered 
her  of  a  dead  baby  in  a  few  minutes. 

"Doctor,  I  have  a  long  list  of  such  cases,  but  will  not  give 
more,  knowing  you  will  be  almost  swamped  by  the  reports  you 
receive." 

44.  (From  the  Boston  Me  J.  and  Surg.  Journal.)  "A  woman 
in  labour  was  under  the  treatment  of  the  mind-cure,  or  Christian 
Science,   without   other   physician.     The   child   was   expelled   by 

*  Mitral  insufficiency  =  disease  of  one  of  the  valves  of  the  heart. 
Cyanotic  =  of  a  dusky  or  bluish  tint. 


I70  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

the  natural  efforts,  but  there  nature  stopped.  The  patient  was 
prayed  over,  and  urged  to  concentrate  her  will  on  the  womb, 
and  to  determine  to  be  well,  and  she  would  be.  Meanwhile 
the  womb  relaxed,  the  sinuses  opened,  flooding  occurred,  and 
the  woman  died,  without  medical  aid.  A  man  with  pneumonia 
was  under  the  care  of  a  Christian  Scientist.  Here  the  will  was 
called  on  by  the  reputed  healer,  and  the  patient  told  to  will  to 
be  well,  and  all  would  be  well.  The  sick  man  was  directed  to 
make  an  effort  to  get  up  and  walk.  He  struggled  to  do  so;  but 
he  walked  to  his  death,  for  he  never  regained  his  bed  alive." 

45.  "The  following  case  came  to  my  attention  a  few  days 
ago,  as  a  personal  communication  from  Dr.  .  He  was  con- 
sulted by  a  man  who  had  for  nearly  a  year  been  treated  by  Chris- 
tian Science  for  deafness    without    any  improvement.     Dr. 

examined  the  ear,  removed  a  pledget  of  cotton  and  some  wax, 
and  the  hearing  was  promptly  restored." 

46.  "A  man  of  33,  going  from  bad  to  worse  through  drink, 
was,' through  the  influence  of  his  mother,  put  under  Christian 
Science  treatment.  After  a  week  or  two  there,  she  was  told  he 
was  getting  on  well,  and  that  her  son  was  soon  to  be  a  'healer,* 
and  he  was  reading  to  a  blind  man  every  day  with  a  view  to  re- 
storing his  sight.  A  few  days  after  this  he  escaped  from  the 
home,  and  was  found  wandering  in  London,  in  a  hopeless  state 
of  intoxication,  and  revolvers  in  his  pocket,  and  was  escorted 
back  to  a  private  nursing  home  in  Manchester.  P.S.  —  The 
only  good  that  came  from  this  is  that  his  mother  is  no  longer  a 
Christian  Scientist.  Whether  her  intelligence  was  appealed  to, 
or  her  pocket  mostly,  by  this  experience,  I  leave  you  to  judge." 

47.  "A  young  married  woman,  25,  five  months'  pregnant, 
was  taken  with  pain  in  the  left  side,  and  was  told  by  a  Christian 
Scientist  that  it  was  *  mental.'  Finally,  a  physician  was  called  in, 
who  found  positive  evidence  of  pus  in  the  left  kidney.  Operation 
showed  acute  primary  pyelo-nephritis.  The  patient  made  a  good 
recovery." 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  171 

(The  American  physician  who  told  me  of  this  case  told  me 
also  that  his  mother,  suffering  from  cancer  of  the  breast,  had 
been  placed  under  Christian  Science  treatment,  and  had  died 
of  the  disease;  and  that  the  relations  who  had  thus  treated  her 
were  now  as  vehemently  opposed  to  Christian  Science  as  then 
they  had  upheld  Christian  Science.  He  also  said,  "You  would 
laugh,  if  you  could  see  how  many  of  these  Scientists  come  to  my 
office,  after  nightfall,  by  the  side  door,  and  ask  me  not  to  tell."*) 

48.  (From  an  American  doctor.)  "I  am  sending  you  the 
following  two  cases  where  the  patients  were  treated  by  Christian 
Science,  and  were  worse,  and  died  after  the  treatment;  and  the 
third  case,  one  of  *  miraculous  conception.'  The  first  was  a 
man  in  middle  life,  who  had  a  mild  attack  of  nephritis,  and  was 
told  by  a  Christian  Science  healer  to  eat  and  drink  as  he  pleased, 
and  to  go  ahead  with  his  business,  for  *he  only  thought  he  was 
sick.'    He  soon  developed  uraemic  convulsions,  and  died. 

"The  second  was  a  man  with  a  small  epithelioma  of  tongue, 
who  was  told  by  a  Christian  Scientist  that  it  didn't  amount  to 
anything,  and  that  their  treatment  would,  soon  make  it  disappear. 
He  died  of  its  ravages  while  receiving  treatment  from  them. 

"The  third  case  which  came  to  my  knowledge  was  one  of  con- 
ception, and  the  delivery  of  a  child  at  term,  in  a  Christian  Scien- 
tist, who  declared  she  conceived  by  thought,  as  taught  in  their 
creed,  and  that  no  man  entered  into  the  case."  f 

*  Miss  Carta  Sturge,  who  has  for  many  years  made  a  profound 
study,  at  first  hand,  of  Christian  Science,  and  has  written  a  most 
wise  criticism  of  its  doctrines,  said,  lately,  that  "there  were  dis- 
illusioned Christian  Scientists,  who  were  not  only  ashamed,  but 
also  afraid  to  confess  that  they  had  been  deceived,  because  the 
very  powerful  organisation  of  the  Scientists  knew  how  to  make 
it  very  unpleasant  for  them."  —  Yorkshire  Daily  Posty  May  21, 1908. 

t  There  is  a  reference  to  this  case,  or  to  another  of  the  same 
kind,  in  Mr.  Podmore's  very  valuable  article,  "  The  Pedigree  of 
Christian  Science,"  Contemporary  Review^  January  1909. 


172  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

49.  "A  lady  had  been  for  many  years  an  inmate  of  a  lunatic 
asylum;  and  her  sister,  having  become  a  Christian  Scientist, 
insisted  upon  taking  her  out  and  submitting  her  to  Christian 
Science  treatment,  confidently  predicting  that  complete  recovery 
would  take  place.  The  patient  was  placed  in  a  cottage  in  the 
country,  with  two  Christian  Science  nurses,  and  was  visited  regu- 
larly by  a  Christian  Science  expert  —  formerly,  I  believe,  a  medi- 
cal practitioner.  What  he  did  for  his  money  I  do  not  know; 
but  I  was  told  that  he  remained  with  the  patient  for  an  hour  at 
each  visit,  and  gazed  at  her  intently.  I  saw  the  patient,  after 
this  sort  of  thing  had  gone  on  for  four  years;  and  she  was  un- 
changed, as  mad  as  ever." 

50.  "  I  may  mention  a  case  which  I  know  by  report.  A  lady 
was  lying  ill  at  her  home,  suffering  from  a  severe  attack  of  acute 
pleurisy.  A  Christian  Scientist  called,  and,  although  told  that 
the  patient  was  dangerously  ill,  forced  her  way  up  to  her  bed- 
room. She  stood  at  the  bottom  of  the  bed  and  said,  *I  have 
come  to  tell  you  that  there  is  nothing  the  matter  with  those  old 
bellows  of  yours !  You  only  think  so.  Stop  that  cough  and 
hard  breathing,  and  you  will  be  better  at  once.*  *Take  that 
woman  away,'  gasped  out  the  patient;  'take  her  away*  —  and 
the  nurse  insisted  on  her  leaving.  The  patient  had  a  bad  and 
disturbed  night,  and  the  disease  ran  its  usual  course." 

51.  "We  have  a  couple  of  Scientists  here.  One  wanted  to 
tackle  a  case  of  secondary  carcinoma  of  the  lungs !  I  was  much 
amused  when  she  sent  her  maid  to  me  for  removal  of  an  adenoma 
of  the  breast.  I  suggested  that  surely  her  mistress  could  cure 
her  without  the  use  of  a  knife;  but  she  replied  that  as  I  had  seen 
the  case  she  would  have  no  influence  on  the  disease.  Pretty  tall 
that!!" 

52.  "The  only  professed  Christian  Scientist  that  I  know  of 
or  can  hear  of  here  is  obviously  eccentric,  and  is  known  to  have 
been  in  an  asylum;  so  her  advocacy  of  any  cause  is  likely  to  do 
it  more  harm  than  good.  ...     I  believe  one  of  their  arguments 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  173 

is  that  drugs  only  act  because  they  are  expected  to  have  certain 
effects.  If  this  is  so,  how  do  they  explain  the  effect  of  drugs  on 
infants  and  animals,  and,  in  the  case  of  some  drugs,  on  an  excised 
frog's  heart?" 

53.  (The  following  letter,  from  a  poor  girl,  is  sent  to  me  by 
a  lady  who  helped  the  girl  after  Christian  Science  had  done  with 
her.     "It  is,"  the  lady  says,  "a  pretty  true  statement  of  the  case: 

Mrs. dropped  her  like  a  hot  potato."     The  case  was  one  of 

tubercular  caries  of  the  spine) :  — 

"To  begin  with,  I  am  paralised  and  curvature  of  the  spine, 
and  have  been  told  I  am  incurable  by  every  doctor  who  has  seen 

me.     The  Christian  Science  treatment  I  had  from  Mrs. was 

that  I  must  stop  eating  all  flesh  meat,  only  taking  two  light  meals 
a  day,  mid-day  and  evening,  drink  a  quart  of  cold  water  a  day, 
stop  taking  all  medicine,  and  to  think  I  was  quite  well,  and  I 
should  be  well.  My  name  was  sent  to  London  (I  think  that  is 
the  place),  where  I  was  prayed  for  every  week  by  the  Faith  Heal- 
ing Society,  and  Mrs. used  to  come  and  rub  me  twice  every 

day  for  a  long  time  and  then  once  a  day.  She  put  me  to  swing 
on  a  gymnasium  ring  to  straighten  my  spine,  which  has  gone  in. 
Then  I  was  put  on  crutches  to  help  get  the  use  of  my  legs,  my 
landlady  held  me  up,  but  I  was  in  agony;  but  the  more  it  hurt 
me,  the  more  good  it  was  doing  me,  I  was  told.  With  this  treat- 
ment I  got  much  worse,  the  pain  in  my  spine  and  my  hip  (which 
has  droped)  and  my  legs  was  made  worse  than  before  all  this, 

and  when  I  said  I  was  worse  Mrs.  said  I  did  not  wish  to 

get  better,  I  am  too  happy  as  I  am,  and  I  had  no  faith,  and  so 
did  not  help  the  treatment.  And  when  I  refused  it  all  you  know 
the  result." 

54.  "A  patient  of  mine,  with  a  large  aortic  aneurysm,  told  me 
he  wished  to  try  Christian  Science  treatment.  He  was  promised 
a  cure  by  the  Christian  Science  operator.  Under  seven  weeks' 
exclusive  Christian  Science  treatment  he  grew  worse,  and  the  pain 
increased,  so  that  he  sent  for  me  again.     He  died  some  weeks  later. 


174  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

"My  partner  was  sent  for  to  see  a  young  lady  (a  member  of  a 
leading  Christian  Science  family)  who  had  had  fever  and  in- 
somnia for  several  nights,  which  Christian  Science  treatment 
failed  to  remedy.  She  was  at  once  relieved  by  proper  treatment 
by  drugs.  This  family  have  sent  for  him  to  diagnose  cases  on 
several  occasions;   the  call  generally  coming  after  dark. 

"Another  Christian  Science  lady,  who  had  been  wearing  an 
instrument  for  some  time  before  my  partner  first  saw  her,  was 
glad  enough  to  get  his  services  to  replace  it.  He  only  discovered 
a  few  days  later  that  the  lady  was  a  Christian  Scientist. 

"A  faith-healer  refused  to  have  a  doctor  to  see  a  girl  in  her 
convalescent  home,  who  was  very  ill  (with  typhoid,  as  it  turned 
out).  She  was  given  ordinary  sort  of  food,  got  perforation,  and 
died." 

55.  "I  do  know  of  one  individual  whose  life  was  certainly 
made  apparently  happier,  as  regards  himself —  and  much  more 
of  a  nuisance  to  his  friends  and  immediate  relatives  —  for  some 
years  after  embracing  Christian  Science,  during  a  visit  to  the 
States.  I  have  just  learned  that  he  is  believed  to  be  dying  — 
*  of  worry,  chiefly'  —  and  I  suspect  that  this  may  be  connected 
with  the  enlarged  and  tender  gall-bladder  for  the  relief  of  which 
he  refused  operation,  when  he  was  in  England,  before  going  to 
America." 

56.  "A  lady,  aged  about  55,  with  an  ovarian  tumour.  She 
left  her  physicians,  and  went  into  the  hands  of  the  Christian 
Scientists.  Their  treatment  impressed  her  much:  for,  several 
times,  the  mass  seemed  to  disappear  after  it.  Her  health,  how- 
ever, declined;  and  her  daughter  was  very  anxious  that  I  should 
see  her.  I  told  her  that  I  would  not  attend  her  unless  she  promised 
to  do  exactly  as  I  told  her.  Her  daughter  told  me  that  the  Chris- 
tian Scientists  wished  me  to  see  her  (she  was  very  ill),  but  that 
she  was  sure  she  would  not  do  anything  not  ordered  by  them. 
I  sent  a  message  to  them  that  I  was  not  going  to  save  them  from 
a  coroner's  inquest,  and  that  I  would  not  see  her  unless  they 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  175 

insisted  on  her  doing  exactly  as  I  told  her.  This  they  did.  I 
diagnosed  an  ovarian  tumour,  with  repeated  rupture  = 'cure* 
after  Christian  Science  treatment,  see  above.  This  was  operated 
on,  but  could  not  be  completely  removed,  after  its  long  duration, 
treatment,  etc.,  and  the  patient  slowly  sank  and  died." 

57.  "Coincidently  with  Mr.  Frederic's  death  from  pneumonia 
in  England,  the  newspapers  also  report  the  deaths  of  Messrs. 
Kershaw  in  Tacoma,  and  McDowell  in  Cincinnati,  and  Mrs. 
Brown  of  Washington;  the  first  of  pneumonia,  the  second  of 
typhoid  fever,  the  last  of  an  unnamed  malady  —  all  the  diseases 
being  complicated  with  Christian  Science."  —  (Mr.  Purrington, 
loc.  cit.) 

58.  (From  the  New  York  Herald,  Paris  edition,  June  21, 
1906.)  **For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Christian  Science,  a 
patient  who  had  been  in  the  care  of  a  healer  has  received  a  ver- 
dict for  damages  on  the  ground  of    improper    treatment.     The 

healer  was  Mr.  ,  and  the  patient  Mr.  .     A  verdict  of 

6000  dollars  was  awarded  for  the  loss  of  a  leg  amputated  because 
the  disease  had  spread  from  a  sore  toe  over  which  the  healer  had 
prayed  in  vain." 

59.  (From  an  American  doctor.)  "Here  are  some  tales  which 
may  be  of  service :  — 

"Case  I.  —  My  friend  C ,  a  man  of  42,  and  a  believer  in 

Christian  Science,  suffered  from  a  hard  cough  and  fever  some 
years  ago.  He  had  an  excellent  tenor  voice.  In  spite  of  his 
indisposition,  his  wife  urged  him  to  go  to  a  Christian  Science 
service  to  sing  on  a  stormy  winter  night.  His  Christian  Science 
friends  informed  him  that  there  was  nothing  wrong,  and  that  the 
service  would  improve  his  condition.  After  returning  home,  he 
was  so  acutely  ill  that  his  wife,  in  alarm,  sent  for  a  neighbouring 
physician,  who  found  his  left  lung  consolidated.  The  next  day 
he  died  of  pneumonia. 

"  Case  2.  —  Mrs.  ,  a  patient  of  my  friend  Dr.  ,  had 

been  for  some  years  a  sufferer  from  mitral  insufficiency,  under  the 


176  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

care  of  Dr.  .     As  she  did  not  recover  her  health  completely, 

she  became  a  Christian  Scientist,  and,  going  deeply  into  the 
mysteries  of  that  cult,  was  acknowledged  by  her  people  as  a 
particularly  expert  'healer/  Two  years  ago  last  January,  she 
rose  at  the  Christian  Science  *  experience  meeting*  in  Boston, 
and  told  how  she  had  been  a  sufferer  from  heart  disease,  of  which 
Christian  Science  had  cured  her,  and  how  she  was  absolutely 
well  at  that  time.  Two  days  later  she  died  suddenly  of  heart 
disease. 

"  Case  3.  —  My  friend  T ,  a  well-known  teacher,  himself 

a  sceptic,  was  the  victim  of  a  wife  who  was  a  strenuous  Christian 
Scientist.  Some  eight  years  ago  he  fell  acutely  ill,  the  ailment 
being  regarded  by  his  friends  as  pneumonia.  In  spite  of  his 
illness  his  wife  continued  to  assure  him  that  there  was  no  such 
thing  as  illness.  One  evening,  with  the  assistance  of  a  friend, 
she  got  him  out  of  bed  into  his  chair  for  supper.  His  heart  *went 
to  pieces,'  and  he  died  before  he  could  be  put  back  into  bed.  He 
was  about  40  years  old,  and  had  always  been  in  vigorous  health.'* 

60.  "I  was  assured  that  a  Dupuytren's  contraction  could  be 
absolutely  cured  by  Christian  Science.  I  argued  that,  while 
Christian  Science  could  undoubtedly  help  certain  cases  of  func- 
tional trouble  by  stimulating  nutritional  processes,  and  so  in- 
creasing resistance,  I  could  not  admit  its  power  over  organic 
conditions.  I  was  assured  it  was  an  accepted  and  proved  fact 
that  it  could  and  did.  I  expressed  my  profound  disbelief  in 
such  possibility,  and  was  denounced  as  a  scoffer.  There  were 
reasons  why  I  greatly  desired  to  convince  the  lady,  who  advised 
me,  that  Christian  Science  had  no  such  power:  so  I  challenged 
her  to  arrange  for  a  course  of  treatment,  she  assuring  me  that 
this  could  be  undertaken  without  my  personal  association  with 
the  healer.  The  time  fixed  by  my  adviser  was  ten  weeks,  at  a 
cost  of  ten  guineas;  the  understanding  being  clear  that  I  did  not 
believe  in  it,  and  would  neither  directly  nor  indirectly  help  or 
influence  results.    At  the  end  of  the  ten  weeks  the  finger  was, 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  177 

of  course,  more  contracted,  the  process  of  cicatrisation  having 
pursued  its  normal  course.  I  then  showed  it  to  my  adviser,  who 
said,  *Of  course.  I  knew  what  the  result  would  be.  Tou  have 
no  faith.'  My  adviser  was  a  lady  of  exact  methods  of  thought, 
logical,  free  from  prejudice,  and  incapable  of  such  evasion,  until 
she  became  dominated  by  the  immoral  antics  of  the  so-called 
Christian  Science." 

61.  "The  only  case  that  occurs  to  me  is  that  of  some  well-to-do 
people.  Their  child,  a  pretty  little  girl  of  three  or  four  years,  de- 
veloped cataract  in  both  eyes.  The  parents  took  her  to  the  best 
oculists  in  London;  and,  rejecting  their  advice,  have  placed  the 
child  under  Christian  Science  treatment.  The  child  is  now  about 
eight,  and  quite  blind,  and  rational  treatment  is  still  refused."  — .^ 

62.  (From  an  American    doctor.)     "  Boston  is    a  hot-bed    of  I 
Christian  Science,  and  we  see  a  great  many  patients  who  are  treated  \ 
by  those  who  practise  it.     I  have  seen  a  patient  dying  of  strangu-  v 
lated  hernia,  who  had  been  treated  from  first  to  last  by  Christian    \ 
Science.     The  patient  was,  as  I  say,  moribund,  and  died  shortly     \ 
after  my  visit.     I  have  seen  many  cases  of  malignant  disease  treated     i 
by  Christian  Science  until  the  period  of  operability  had  passed. 
I  have  seen  one  or  two  patients  dying  of  haemorrhage  who  had  been 
treated  by  Christian  Science.     I  should  say  I  had  seen  about  a 
hundred  cases,  in  which  the  only  chance  for  cure  had  been  lost 
through  the  Christian  Science  treatment." 

63.  "A  lady  with  inoperable  cancer  suflFered  a  great  deal  of 
pain.  She  was  relieved  by  morphia  and  by  external  applications. 
A  most  conscientious  and  high-principled  nurse  attended  to  her, 
under  the  direction  of  an  able  surgeon.  The  nurse  made  consider- 
able sacrifices,  in  respect  to  her  own  health  as  well  as  remuneration, 
because  the  patient  suffered  greatly  and  set  great  store  upon  the 
skilful  attendance  of  the  nurse,  and  always  spoke  with  gratitude 
of  the  amelioration  of  her  sufferings  brought  about  by  the  nurse's 
help.  The  other  members  of  the  patient's  family  were  Christian 
Scientists.     They  attributed  the  failure  of  their  methods  to  the 

N 


178  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

maleficent  proximity  of  this  excellent  nurse.  They  told  the  patient 
that  her  extreme  suffering  was  due  (i)  to  her  own  unwillingness 
to  yield  herself  to  their  methods,  (2)  to  the  hindrance  set  up  by 
trusting  to  the  nurse's  applications  and  the  morphia.  At  length 
the  poor  lady  died :  the  only  comfort  she  had  had  being  due  to  the 
devotion  and  skill  of  the  nurse.  She  begged  again  and  again  during 
her  painful  illness  that  the  nurse  would  not  leave  her  side,  as  she 
was,  during  such  absences,  subjected  to  the  accusations  of  her 
relations,  that  her  sufferings  were  entirely  due  to  her  own  fault." 

64.  "I  am  delighted  to  hear  that  you  are  attacking  Christian 
Science.  Nothing  you  can  possibly  say  can  be  too  strong;  for 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  its  teachings  are  wicked,  pernicious, 
and  a  source  of  great  danger.  During  my  illness  I  have  received 
dozens  of  letters,  praying  me  to  give  the  'Science'  a  chance,  and  I 
have  been  inundated  with  the  publications  of  the  sect,  most  of  which 
I  have  read.  They  bristle  with  lies,  misstated  facts,  and  worked-up 
cases.  In  no  single  instance  have  I  come  across  a  case  in  which 
physical  disability  has  been  cured.  Their  results  are  brought  about 
by  suggestion  —  a  therapeutic  agent  which,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  is 
greatly  neglected  by  our  profession,  to  our  detriment. 

"I  know  of  a  case  in  which  the  death  of  a  child  was  directly 
caused  by  the  father's  neglect  to  call  in  a  medical  man.  The 
child  was  suffering  from  tubercular  glands  in  the  neck  which  needed 
operative  treatment.  No  medical  man  was  called  in  until  the  child 
was  unconscious  as  the  result  of  toxic  infection,  and  it  was  too  late 
for  anything  to  be  done. 

"I  know  a  case  of  locomotor  ataxy  in  which  the  patient  has 
been  informed  that  he  is  cured.  As  the  result  of  his  improved 
mental  condition,  he  is  now  doing  things  which  no  medical  man 
would  advise,  and  I  daily  expect  to  hear  of  his  collapse.  His 
disease  is  progressing  rapidly. 

"I  treated  a  patient  for  some  time  with  the  x-rays  for  malignant 
disease  of  the  glands  in  the  neck.  Just  as  she  was  gaining  benefit, 
she  joined  the  Christian  Scientists.     She  now  writes  that  she  is 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  179 

cured,  and  that  the  growth  has  nearly  disappeared.  The  result 
is  due  to  the  absorption  of  the  growth  by  the  rays.  She  was  in- 
formed by  the  Christian  Scientist  that  if  she  had  not  had  the  x-ray 
treatment  she  would  have  been  cured  much  more  easily.  She  is 
not  cured." 

65.  "A  child  broke  her  clavicle,  and  the  father  was  prosecuted 
by  the  National  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children. 

The  case  was  tried  in  the Police  Court,  and  sent  forward  to  the 

Sessions.  The  father  was  convicted  for  cruelty  at  the  Sessions. 
The  result  of  the  treatment  which  he  had  adopted  was  a  perma- 
nent deformity  with  marked  shortening.  All  I  had  to  do  with  the 
case  was,  after  the  trial  I  was  consulted  as  to  an  attempt  to  rectify 
the  mal-union." 

66.  "  I  know  of  one  case  in  which  a  child  in  the  house  of  Chris- 
tian Scientists  had  measles,  and  they  asserted  that  it  was  not  any 
illness,  and  prayer  would  cure  her.  The  result  was,  the  child  was 
allowed  to  go  out  to  parties,  etc.,  with  the  result  of  causing  a  con- 
siderable epidemic.  Another  case,  of  cancer  of  the  stomach,  in 
which  they  refused  the  unfortunate  person  any  treatment,  allowing 
him  to  die  in  considerable  agony." 

67.  "  The  only  flagrant  case  I  know  of  will  not  be  of  much  use 
to  you,  as  I  do  not  know  particulars.  I  was  sent  for  to  see  a  baby, 
of  a  year  old  perhaps.  It  had  been  attended  by  a  Christian  Scien- 
tist, but  I  did  not  find  out  definitely  what  had  been  the  ailment, 
nor  the  treatment.     The  child  was  dead  when  I  arrived." 

68.  (From  an  American  doctor.)  "A  few  years  ago,  I  was 
called  to  a  little  boy  affected  with  an  osteo-myelitis  of  the  femur. 
The  little  fellow,  emaciated,  limp,  and  tortured  by  many  days  of 
atrocious  suffering,  was  a  pitiable  object;  thoroughly  septic,  having 
chills,  the  temperature  at  my  call  being  about  105°.  His  mother, 
a  Christian  Scientist,  dismissed  me  next  day  by  *phone,  declaring 
she  had  no  belief  in  doctors.  It  afterwards  appeared  that  the  poor 
child  was  inhumanly  forced  to  walk,  in  spite  of  the  necessarily 
excruciating  pain,  until  a  fracture  occurred  through  the  necrosed 


i8o  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

bone.      The  case  was  later  operated  upon;  recovery  ensuing  with, 
of  course,  great  shortening  of  the  Hmb." 

These  short  notes,  put  here  as  I  got  them,  give 
but  a  faint  sense  of  the  ill  working  of  Christian 
Science.  It  would  be  easy  to  collect  hundreds  more. 
Of  course,  to  see  the  full  iniquity  of  these  cases,  the 
reader  should  be  a  doctor,  or  should  go  over  them 

I      with  a  doctor.     But  everybody,  doctor  or  not,  can 

I  feel  the  cruelty,  born  of  the  fear  of  pain,  in  some  of 
these  Scientists  —  the  downright  madness  threatening 
not  a  few  of  them,  and  the  appalling  self-will.  They 
bully  dying  women,  and  let  babies  die  in  pain;    let 

;  cases  of  paralysis  tumble  iabout  and  hurt  themselves; 
rob  the  epileptic  of  their  bromide,  the  syphilitic  of 
their  iodide,  the  angina  cases  of  their  amyl  nitrite, 

j  the  heart  cases  of  their  digitalis;  let  appendicitis  go 
on  to  septic  peritonitis,  gastric  ulcer  to  perforation 
of  the  stomach,  nephritis  to  uraemic  convulsions, 
and  strangulated  hernia  to  the  miserere  mei  of  gan- 
grene; watch,  day  after  day,  while  a  man  or  a  woman 
slowly  bleeds  to  death;  compel  them  who  should 
be  kept  still  to  take  exercise;  and  withhold  from  all 
cases  of  cancer  all  hope  of  cure.  To  these  works 
of  the  devil  they  bring  their  one  gift,  wilful  and 
complete  ignorance;  and  their  "nursing"  would  be 
a  farce,  if  it  were  not  a  tragedy.  Such  is  the  way 
of  Christian  Science,  face  to  face,  as  she  loves  to 
be,  with  bad  cases  of  organic  disease. 


OF   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  i8i 

Something  ought  to  be  said  here,  and  I  hope  that 
it  may  be  said  without  offence,  of  the  present  revival 
of  "spiritual  healing"  in  this  country.  There  is 
now  more  than  one  association,  in  London,  for  the 
work  of  getting  people  to  recognise  the  spiritual  side 
of  bodily  health,  and  to  make  use  of  prayer  in  time 
of  sickness.  None  of  us  doctors  is  likely  to  find 
fault  with  that  sort  of  work.  The  further  proposal, 
to  restore,  in  the  English  Church,  the  laying-on  of 
hands,  and  the  anointing  with  oil,  does  not  concern 
our  profession.  It  is  for  the  patient,  and  the  family, 
to  have  what  ordinance  or  ritual  they  wish  to  have. 
Our  only  business  is  to  do  our  best  for  the  patients. 

All  the  same,  we  cannot  help  watching  with  great 
interest,  and  with  a  good  deal  of  anxiety,  this  con- 
fused movement.  I  venture  to  call  it  confused,  for 
I  cannot  see  that  they,  who  desire  to  revive  "  spiritual 
healing,"  are  agreed  among  themselves.  Is  there 
any  disease  which  they  would  refuse,  point  blank,  to 
treat  ?  Are  they  minded  to  take  only  those  cases 
that  the  doctors  assign  to  them  ^  What  rules  will 
they  have  for  the  testing,  diagnosing,  and  watching 
of  cases .?  Will  they  analyse  and  tabulate  their 
results,  and  publish  every  case  ^  If  one  of  their 
patients  dies,  who  will  sign  the  death-certificate  ? 
What  precautions  will  they  take  to  prevent  quacks 
from  imitating  their  methods  ^ 

But  these  professional  difficulties  are  not  the  real 
difficulty.     Though  they  were  all  settled,  yet  there 


1 82  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

are  cases  which  nobody,  not  even  the  healers,  would 
care  to  submit  to  spiritual  treatment.  And,  once  a 
doctor  sets  himself  to  try  to  think  it  out  what  cases 
should  be  submitted  to  such  treatment,  he  is  apt  to 
find  none  but  "functional"  maladies.  I  assume, 
that  he  is  of  one  mind  with  the  healers;  that  he 
would  send  cases  to  them,  not  with  a  laugh,  but  with 
absolute  faith  in  the  possibility  of  miraculous  inter- 
vention. Still,  I  think  that  he  would  send  only  such 
cases  as  Charcot,  in  his  grave  way,  sent  to  Lourdes. 

Take,  to  begin  with,  congenital  malformations. 
No  sane  doctor  would  submit  a  cleft  palate  or  a 
hare-lip  to  spiritual  treatment.  It  would  be  as 
reasonable  to  pray  that  the  sex  of  a  child  should  be 
changed.  But  congenital  malformation  occurs  not 
only  in  the  face  and  limbs;  it  may  be  the  heart,  or 
the  stomach,  born  deformed.  The  evident  ill-health, 
due  to  such  deformity,  might  seem  to  give  oppor- 
tunity for  spiritual  healing;  whereas  a  congenital 
gap  in  the  septum  of  the  heart  is  no  less  immutable 
than  a  similar  gap  in  the  palate  or  the  lip.  Or  it 
may  be  the  brain  that  is  born  deformed,  as  in  the 
unhappy  cases  of  "spastic  paralysis,"  the  poor  twisted 
imbecile  creatures  whom  one  sees  now  and  again  in 
the  streets;  here  is  a  gross  congenital  defect  of  the 
brain:  and  "This  alone  is  impossible  for  the  Gods, 
to  undo  what  has  been  done." 

But  our  brains  are  subject  also  to  subtle  modes 
of  congenital  defect,  at  which  the  pathologists  can 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  183 

only  guess.  That  is  what  we  mean,  when  we  say 
Poor  So-and-so,  you  cant  wonder,  with  such  a  family 
history.  We  mean,  that  there  is  something  wrong, 
by  inheritance,  with  some  of  the  cells  of  his  brain. 
If  we  knew  just  which  they  were,  out  of  his  thousand 
million  brain-cells,  and  could  put  them  under  the 
microscope,  we  might  be  able  to  see  that  they  were 
shapen  in  wickedness.  Even  though  they  looked 
perfectly  normal,  we  should  say  that  the  microscope 
was  not  strong  enough;  we  should  be  magnifying 
them,  in  the  mind's  eye,  till  each  cell  was  a  yard 
across,  and  thereby  showed  itself  made  to  dishonour. 
In  brief,  is  there  any  such  malady  as  a  "functional" 
disease  of  the  brain  ?  Is  not  all  function  the  act  of 
structure .?  If  I  do  but  swear,  my  language  is 
registered  on  my  brain-cells,  as  my  payments  are 
registered  on  the  ingenious  machines  in  the  shops. 
But  I  am  getting  out  of  my  depth.  For  I  am  sure 
that  I  can  stop  myself  from  swearing;  neither,  if  I 
fail,  may  I  accuse  my  inheritance. 

From  the  brain  we  come  to  the  spinal  cord.  Take 
infantile  paralysis,  and  locomotor  ataxy.  In  either 
case,  there  is  degeneration  of  certain  cells  in  the  cord. 
The  disease  may  stop  short,  in  this  or  that  patient, 
of  the  hopeless  stage;  but  take  a  case  where  many 
cells  have  disappeared,  and  many  more  are  just  points 
of  ruin  under  the  microscope.  The  loss  of  these 
cells  is  the  disease.  A  microscopic  section  of  such 
a  cord  looks  like  an  ill-set  proof,  where  many  letters 


i84  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

have  dropped  out.  For  the  healing  of  this  cord, 
hosts  of  new  cells  must  be  made,  and  set  in  place; 
each  of  them  a  miracle,  a  new  creation,  a  living 
unit  fashioned  out  of  nothing.  Improvement  of  the 
patient's  health  cannot  do  that;  the  disease  is  not 
want  of  health,  but  want  of  cells;  each  new  cell 
would  be  no  less  miraculous  than  a  new  arm  after 
amputation  at  the  shoulder. 

Take  a  different  sort  of  cases,  the  many  kinds  of 
tumours.  For  the  removal  of  these  lumps,  there 
must  be  miraculous  annihilation  of  matter.  Some 
are  of  embryonic  tissue,  laid  down  before  birth; 
some  are  huge  cysts  containing  fluid,  or  strange 
fcetal  elements;  some  are  masses  of  bone  or  cartilage 
or  hard  fibrous  tissue  or  fat;  some  are  masses  of 
small  cells  rapidly  multiplying;  and  all  are  practically 
outside  the  pale  of  the  nervous  system.  I  do  inter- 
vene, I  know  not  how,  in  the  affairs  of  my  brain; 
but  I  am  sure  that  I  could  not  prevent  a  mass  of 
cells  in  my  liver  from  having  their  own  way.  The 
fact  that  mouse-cancer  can  be  inoculated  from  mouse 
to  mouse  seems  to  me  final.  Nothing  but  a  miracle 
will  act  on  such  cells,  until  the  pathologists  find  a 
direct  antidote. 

Take  the  vast  kingdom  of  the  infective  diseases, 
the  fevers  due  to  specific  germs :  for  example,  a  case 
of  lockjaw,  or  a  case  of  diphtheria.  The  germs  are 
the  disease.  The  approved  treatment  includes  the 
use  of  a  specific  antitoxin,  to  supplement  the  anti- 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  185 

toxin  which  the  patient's  blood  is  brewing,  as  fast  as 
it  can,  against  the  toxin  which  the  germs  are  brew- 
ing. Here  is  animal  chemistry,  the  same  in  rabbits 
and  guinea-pigs  as  in  us.  I  do  believe  that  hope 
and  faith  and  love  will  help  a  man,  somehow,  to 
hang  on,  till  enough  antitoxin  has  been  brewed  in 
him,  or  put  into  him  with  a  hypodermic  syringe. 
But  I  do  not  believe  that  they  accelerate  the  brewing, 
or  make  any  difference  to  the  germs. 

Or  take  this  case,  of  which  I  have  just  heard.  A 
young  man,  with  severe  anaemia,  came,  hardly  able 
to  walk,  and  white  as  death;  to  a  spiritual  healer; 
was  laid  on  a  couch,  and  prayer  was  made  over  him, 
with  laying-on  of  hands.  The  colour  came  back  to 
his  lips,  and  he  rose  and  walked  firmly.  But  the 
question  is.  Did  he  weigh  more  ^  Was  there  a  drop 
more  blood  in  his  body .?  Was  there  a  grain  more 
colouring-matter  in  his  blood  ^  What  had  happened, 
but  that  some  blood  had  gone  to  his  head,  from  the 
deep  veins  of  his  trunk,  under  the  influence  of  rest 
and  confidence  ^ 

See  how  the  doctor,  though  he  were  of  one  faith 
with  the  spiritual  healer,  is  hampered  by  a  natural 
reluctance  to  adopt  so  many  acts  of  miraculous  heal- 
ing. I  assume  that  he  believes  in  the  present  possi- 
bility of  miracles;  but  he  is  not  inclined  to  expect 
them  everywhere.  Besides,  he  is  of  opinion  that 
they  ought  to  begin  at  home.  He  distrusts  these 
new  experts,  who  suddenly  appear  in  London,  come 


i86  THE  FAITH  AND   WORKS 

nobody  knows  whence,  neither  doctors  nor  clerics. 
He  is  glad  that  the  cleric  and  he  should  work  together 
in  the  atmosphere  of  the  patient's  home;  but  he 
does  not  admire  the  atmosphere  of  spiritual  consult- 
ing-rooms and  spiritual  private  hospitals.  He  is 
rubbed  the  wrong  way,  for  instance,  by  such  cases 
as  this,  which  is  reported  in  the  British  Medical 
Journal,  December  26,  1908 :  — 

A  coroner's  inquiry  was  held  in  Kensington  on  December  8 
into  the  circumstances  attending  the  death  of  a  gentleman  of 
independent  means,  aged  44,  who  had  been  found  hanged.  .  .  . 
The  deceased,  some  three  years  ago,  had  been  temporarily  under 
restraint  as  suffering  from  melancholia.  ...  He  was  found  dead 
on  the  afternoon  of  Sunday,  December  6,  having  in  the  previous 
week  gone  to  London  with  a  kind  of  attendant  companion,  a 
retired  army  officer,  to  consult  a  **  mental  expert."  He  had  seen 
this  gentleman  on  the  Thursday  preceding  his  death,  and  had 
received   treatment   from   him   on   the   day   that   he   died.     This 

mental  expert  gave  his  name  as  .     He  was  not  qualified  in 

England,  and  did  not  practise.  By  profession  he  was  a  lecturer 
on  mental  and  spiritual  healing.  He  lectured  to  his  patients  in 
mental  cases,  and  in  spiritual  cases  emphasised  the  idea  of  God 
being  all-powerful.  Some  cases  he  treated  mentally,  and  others 
spiritually.  His  teachings  did  not  ignore  ordinary  science,  but 
rather  worked-in  with  it.  He  did  not  exclude  medical  treat- 
ment, and  would  send  a  patient  to  a  doctor  if  he  thought  neces- 
sary. He  had  had  some  cases  of  insanity.  He  should  describe 
his  treatment  as  healing  by  suggestion.  It  was  not  mesmerism, 
or  faith-healing,  or  Christian  Science.  A  part  of  his  treatment 
consisted  of  prayers,  but  it  was  not  prayer  of  the  common  form. 
He  could  not  describe  it.  In  spiritual  cases,  he  did  not  talk  to 
the  patient,  but  sat  by  his  side  and  did  the  healing  silently.  He 
took  fees,  not  for  sitting  still  and  doing  nothing,  but  for  his  time. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  187 

I  do  not  see  the  use  of  this  gentleman.  I  cannot 
reconcile  the  two  statements  (i)  In  spiritual  cases  he 
emphasised  the  idea  of  God  being  all-powerful; 
(2)  In  spiritual  cases  he  did  not  talk  to  the  patient. 
It  is  true,  that  he  was  content  with  indescribable 
prayer,  not  of  the  common  form;  that  he  did  not  em- 
ploy the  laying-on  of  hands,  or  the  anointing;  but 
he  could  learn  these  acts  in  five  minutes,  without  wait- 
ing for  the  approval  of  the  English  Church.  What 
should  stop  him  ?  Once  a  man  thinks  that  he  can 
heal  by  prayer,  and  laying-on  of  hands,  and  anointing, 
nothing  will  stop  him.  Not  only  will  women,  more 
than  men,  practise  the  new  faith-healing,  but  all. 
Christian  or  not,  who  discover  a  gift  that  way. 
"The  impulse  becomes  almost  irresistible,"  Mr. 
Hickson  says,  who  is  the  chief  of  these  healers.  I 
am  well  aware  that  he  has  a  beneficial  influence; 
but  his  account  of  his  work  and  of  his  cases  is  too 
like  Science  and  Health  for  me.  "The  patient,"  he 
says,  "must  come  in  an  attitude  of  passivity  and 
receptivity.  ...  It  is  not  his  part  to  contribute 
ideas  and  suggestions.  To  doubt  the  healer  is  to 
set  up  a  condition  of  inharmony  and  friction,  thus 
wasting  precious  time  to  both  healer  and  himself. 
Even  Christ  could  not  heal  some,  because  of  their 
unbelief."  The  hands  are  Mr.  Hickson's  hands, 
but  the  voice  is  the  voice  of  Christian  Science.  The 
very  words,  inharmony,  friction,  and  waste  of  precious 
time,  and  the  reference  to  unbelief,  remind    me  of 


i88  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

her.  Or  take  his  magazine,  The  Healer.  It  reprints, 
October  1908,  quite  gravely,  the  miracles  of  a  Dr. 
Yakum,  of  Pisgah  House,  somewhere  on  the  Pacific 
coast.  Among  them,  a  man,  "in  the  last  stages, 
apparently,  of  consumption  in  the  lower  part  of  the 
body,"  was  instantaneously  healed.  What  is  con- 
sumption in  the  lower  part  of  the  body  ?  Dr. 
Yakum  himself  was  healed  by  laying-on  of  hands 
and  anointing,  "after  one  lung  had  sloughed  away, 
and  the  other  was  half  gone";  and  he  has  been,  ever 
since,  "in  perfect  health,  with  two  good  sound  lungs." 
Mrs.  Eddy  herself,  who  "  restored  the  lost  substance 
of  lungs,"  and  healed  consumption  "in  its  last  stages, 
the  lungs  being  mostly  consumed  "  (see  Chap.  IV.), 
might  have  written  this  part  of  The  Healer,  It  is 
no  wonder,  that  Mr.  Hickson  believes  also  in 
demoniac  possession,  and  in  exorcism.  "Experience 
leads  me  to  believe  firmly  in  obsession,  and  in  the 
power  of  Christ  to  cast  out  evil  spirits  and  set  free 
those  whom  Satan  has  bound."  Of  a  little  child, 
who  had  a  furious  temper,  he  says,  "In  answer  to 
prayer  and  the  command  to  the  evil  spirit  to  depart 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  it  was  cast  out." 

We  all  know,  of  course,  that  the  "Emmanuel 
movement,"  in  the  United  States,  has  had  many 
good  cases  of  healing.  Nobody  who  has  read 
what  Dr.  M'Comb  of  Boston  and  Bishop  Fallowes 
of  Chicago  have  to  say  of  it,  can  doubt  that.  But 
there  is  more  than  the  width  of  the  Atlantic  between 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  189 

Dr.  M'Comb's  "Class  for  the  moral  treatment  of 
nervous  diseases,"  and  Mr.  Hickson's  ways  of 
spiritual  healing.  "You  come  across  cases,"  says 
Emmanuel  Church,  Boston,  to  the  Boston  doctors, 
"of  hysteria,  neurasthenia,  hypochondriasis,  alcohol- 
ism, cocainism,  minds  on  the  edge  of  a  breakdown, 
lives  frightened  at  their  own  shadows.  You  know 
the  almost  hopeless  difficulty  of  some  of  these  cases  : 
how,  if  you  tell  them  that  you  can  do  nothing  more 
for  them,  they  take  up  with  any  quack  who  will 
promise  more.  Why  not  send  them  to  us  ?  We 
will  take  no  patients  but  those  whom  you  may  send. 
To  fit  ourselves  for  the  work,  we  have  studied 
physiology  and  psychology,  with  special  reference  to 
the  influences  of  the  mind  over  the  body.  We  will 
explain  to  them,  carefully  and  fully,  the  nature  of 
their  disabilities,  and  will  teach  them  to  minister  to 
themselves."  The  work  includes  the  heartening- 
up  of  many  cases  of  organic  disease.  It  sounds  a 
fairly  good  plan.*  Anyhow,  it  is  very  different 
from  the  "Emmanuel  movement"  over  here. 

Religion  and  Medicine  will  never  again  keep 
house  together,  with  one  brass  plate  between  them. 
Happily,  in  daily  life,  the  cleric  and  the  doctor  are 
good  friends,  good  colleagues.  They  do  respect 
and  help  each  other,  yes,  and  do  understand  each 

*  For  the  faults  and  the  grave  risks  of  the  movement,  see  a 
very  important  article  in  the  British  Medical  Journal,  January 
16,  1909. 


190  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

other.  To  hear  some  people  talk,  you  would  think 
that  the  cleric  and  the  doctor  never  met  over  a  case; 
v^hereas,  every  day,  at  the  bedside,  they  are  working 
together,  each  at  his  best,  in  the  proper  business  of 
their  life. 

I  hope  that  I,  when  my  time  comes,  shall  have 
the  courage  stare  super  antiquas  vias.  That  I  want, 
at  present,  to  go  on  living,  is  no  proof  that  I  ought. 
That  a  self-appointed  spiritual  healer  should  convey 
a  respite  to  me,  would  be  too  high  a  price  to  pay  for 
having  to  face  death  a  second  time;  too  fantastical 
an  honour  from  Heaven  to  be  quite  acceptable. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  191 


VIII 

"COMMON-SENSE"   AND   CHRISTIAN 
SCIENCE 

Every  discovery  comes  to  stand  at  the  judgment- 
seat  of  Common-sense;  it  may  be  at  once,  or  it 
may  be  at  last,  but  they  all  take  their  turn  to  stand 
there;  and  so  must  Christian  Science.  Fools  make 
light  of  Common-sense,  as  if  it  were  the  sense  of  a 
common  man,  whereas  it  is  the  sense  of  man  in 
common;  all  instinct,  all  experience,  all  the  inherited 
or  acquired  assurance  of  our  race.  It  takes  things 
as  it  finds  them.  It  does  not  wonder  how  we  hap- 
pen to  be  on  this  earth;  it  stops  at  the  fact  that 
on  this  earth  we  are.  When  Christian  Science  says 
that  accidents  are  unknown  to  God,  Common-sense 
answers  that,  anyhow,  they  are  not  unknown  to  us. 
When  she  says  that  the  allness  of  Deity  is  His  one- 
ness, I  would  rather  not  repeat  what  Common-sense 
says.  When  she  says  that  germs  exist  only  in 
mortal  mind,  Common-sense  offers  to  inoculate  any 
Christian  Scientist  with  anthrax  or  tetanus.  When 
she  says  that  our  bones  are  our  thoughts  of  bones, 
and  that  a  baby,  at  birth,  takes  over  its  mother's 
thoughts   of  its   bones,    and   thereby   gets    its   own 


192  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

thought-bones  or  bone-thoughts,  Common-sense  asks, 
What  is  done  in  the  case  of  unexpected  twins  ? 
When  she  says  that  flowers,  apart  from  mortal  mind, 
cannot  make  you  sneeze,  because  they  are  so  pretty, 
again  I  must  draw  a  veil  over  the  language  of  Com- 
mon-sense. 

After  these  flourishes,  which  are  the  salute  before 
the  duel.  Common-sense  assaults,  with  furious  ques- 
tions as  to  the  use,  or  abuse,  of  the  colossal  wealth 
of  Christian  Science.*  What  has  become  of  all 
those  millions.^  Where  are  they;  what  is  there  to 
show  for  them;  who  have  had  the  handling  of  them  ? 
Why  does  the  cheapest  copy  of  Science  and  Health 
cost  three  dollars  }     Why  is  it  forbidden,  in  a  Chris- 

*  In  Mark  Twain*s  Christian  Science  (Harper,  1907)  there  is 
an  admirable  account  of  this  wealth.  He  estimates  the  profit 
on  Science  and  Health  at  700  per  cent.  It  is  60  times  more  costly 
than  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament.  He  points  out,  also,  that 
Christian  Science  has  no  charities  to  support.  "No,  nor  even 
to  contribute  to.  One  searches  in  vain  the  Trust's  advertise- 
ments, and  the  utterances  of  its  organs,  for  any  suggestion  that 
it  spends  a  penny  on  orphans,  widows,  discharged  prisoners, 
hospitals,  ragged  schools,  night  missions,  city  missions,  libraries, 
old  peoples'  homes,  or  any  other  object  that  appeals  to  a  human 
being's  purse  through  his  heart.  Churches  that  give  have  nothing 
to  hide.  I  have  hunted,  hunted,  and  hunted,  by  correspondence 
and  otherwise,  and  have  not  yet  got  upon  the  track  of  a  farthing 
that  the  Trust  has  spent  upon  any  worthy  object.  Nothing 
makes  a  Scientist  so  uncomfortable  as  to  ask  him  if  he  knows  of 
a  case  where  Christian  Science  has  spent  money  on  a  benevo- 
lence, either  among  its  own  adherents  or  elsewhere." 


OF   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  193 

tian  Science  reading-room,  to  copy  from  its  pages  ? 
Why  was  legal  action  threatened,  not  long  ago, 
against  the  people  around  Mrs.  Eddy  ?  Of  all 
these  millions,  how  much  has  gone  to  the  gratis 
treatment  of  the  poor,  how  much  to  the  building  and 
maintenance  of  hideous  temples,*  and  how  much 
elsewhere  ?     And  the  book  itself,  how  many  hands 

*  The  aversion  of  Christian  Science  from  Christian  art,  and 
from  the  Christian  Church,  is  well  displayed  in  architecture. 
The  temple  in  London,  near  Sloane  Street,  combines  the  features 
of  a  Synagogue  with  those  of  the  New  Gaiety  Theatre.  Inside, 
it  is  a  concert  hall,  "the  most  luxurious  lounge  in  London,"  with 
a  huge  organ.  Its  two  doors  are  each  surmounted  by  a  text : 
one  is  the  First  Commandment,  the  other  is  by  Mrs.  Eddy.  Of 
the  churches  in  Chicago,  we  read  that  they  are  "as  beautiful  and 
chaste  in  architecture  and  construction  as  that  of  First  Church, 
which  would  have  been  an  ornament  to  Greece  itself  in  its  palmiest 
days.  Like  the  religion  out  of  which  they  have  sprung,  they  are 
light,  cheerful,  beautiful,  homelike,  and  inviting.  There  is  noth- 
ing of  the  austerity  that  still  clings  to  the  most  modern  of  the 
churches  of  other  denominations.  The  entrances  are  like  those 
to  some  beautiful  temple  of  art,  and  within  is  a  wide,  high-arched 
reception  hall.'*  Why,  that  is  the  way  to  be  comfortable.  Down 
with  the  Cross.  Let  us  be  cheerful  and  light,  like  Greece  in  her 
palmiest  days :  let  us  have  none  of  that  austerity.  And  the  archi- 
tect of  the  Boston  church  has  published  this  remarkable  testi- 
monial to  the  style  of  his  own  work,  that  it  is  "based  on  a  mathe- 
matical inerrancy  which  is  most  fascinating  to  analyse,"  and  that 
"the  purest  type  of  the  ancient  Greek  temples  was  the  outgrowth 
of  a  naturalistic  and  rationalistic  religion."  These  two  adjectives 
are  not  often  found  shaking  hands.  Anyhow,  the  Boston  church 
is  singularly  unlike  a  Greek  temple. 


194  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

wrote  and  revise  and  expurgate  it  ?  Not  that  Com- 
mon-sense cares  whether  one  hand,  or  a  dozen, 
wrote  such  a  book. 

Then,  in  a  rage.  Common-sense  cries.  For  God's 
sake  leave  the  children  alone.  It  doesnt  matter  with 
grown-up  people;  they  can  believe  what  they  like 
about  Good  and  Evil,  and  germs,  and  things.  But 
the  children;  they  take  their  children  to  these  services. 
Why  cant  they  leave  the  children  out  of  it?  We 
have  to  face  this  fact,  that  there  are  Sunday  Schools 
of  Christian  Science,  where  children  are  admitted 
from  the  tender  age  of  three,  and  that  children  come 
to  the  ordinary  Sunday  services.  No  wonder  that 
Common-sense  is  impatient  of  such  parents. 

For  their  bodily  safety,  children  must  believe  in 
the  reality  of  injuries,  diseases,  and  pain.  Grown- 
up folk  do  not  play  with  fire,  slide  down  the  balus- 
trade, swallow  foreign  substances,  kiss  diphtheritic 
babies,  climb  spiky  railings,  and  so  forth.  Every 
year,  in  this,  as  in  every  other  country,  thousands 
of  children  are  burned  to  death.  Is  it  fair,  to  tell 
a  child  that  pain  is  not  real  ?  I  cannot  imagine 
sharper  grief  than  for  a  mother  to  lose  her  child  that 
way  —  O  mother,  mother,  you  told  me  God  wouldn't 
let  me  be  hurt;   and  0  mother.  He  has,  dreadfully! 

The  Christian  Science  Journal,  July  1 898,  gives 
a  good  instance;  it  is  quoted  at  length  in  Miss  Feild- 
ing's  book.  A  little  girl,  five  years  old,  fell  out  of 
a   window.     "The    blood   was    spurting    from    her 


L/Or 
I     the 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  195 

mouth;  she  seemed  to  suffer  greatly  if  she  was 
moved  at  all,  and  her  legs  seemed  paralysed,  lifeless/' 
That  afternoon,  the  mother  deserted  her  child,  and 
went  off  to  a  Christian  Science  service.  "I  went  to 
the  afternoon  service,  rejoicing  greatly  in  my  freedom 
from  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility.^'  At  night, 
the  child  said,  "Mamma,  error  is  trying  to  say  that 
I  fell  out  of  the  window,  but  it  cannot  be.  The 
child  of  God  can't  fall;  but  why  do  I  lie  here? 
Why  can't  I  move  my  legs?"  A  few  days  later, 
a  child  of  three  years  old  said  to  her,  "You  did  fall 
out  of  the  window,  didn't  you?"  Then  five-years- 
old  said,  "My  body  fell,  but  I  am  not  in  my  body. 
C^n  God's  child  fall  ? "  Then  three-years-old  said, 
"No,  because  God  is  good."  A  similar  case  of 
"freedom  from  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility" 
is  quoted  in  the  Daily  Telegraph,  August  28,  1907. 
"A  lad  was  taken  seriously  ill,  and  suffered  ex- 
cruciating pain.  His  mother,  being  a  Christian 
Scientist,  made  him  deny  the  pain,  and  would  do 
nothing  to  relieve  him,  but  left  him  to  suffer.  His 
screams  brought  the  neighbours,  who  were  angrily 
refused  admission.  Then  came  the  authorities  with 
a  physician.  The  boy,  pointing  to  his  mother,  said, 
*She  don't  care  how  much  I  suffer;  she  would 
let  me  die!'"  In  the  same  paper,  September  2, 
another  writer  says,  "I  have  known  a  Christian 
Science  mother  turn  in  scorn  from  the  pitiful  sobbing 
cry  of  her  little  child  in  pain."     Dr.  Huber  goes  so 


196  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

far  as  to  say,  "Christian  Science  has  stood  by  the 
bedside  of  an  infant  sick  with  diphtheria,  has  pre- 
vented interference  with  its  incahtations,  and  has 
seen  this  infant  choke,  grow  livid,  gasp,  and  expire, 
without  so  much  as  putting  a  drop  of  water  to  its 
Hps;  has  sacrificed  the  Hves  of  Httle  children  upon 
the  altar  of  its  pseudo-religion."  Christian  Science 
defends  herself:  says  that  she  teaches  children  to 
be  "singularly  fearless."  The  reader  can  decide  the 
worth  of  this  defence.  Children,  of  course,  do  be- 
lieve in  a  "  corporeal  Jehovah "  —  a  God  who  will 
stop  them  half-way  between  the  nursery  window 
and  the  pavement. 

For  their  spiritual  safety,  children  must  believe  in 
the  reality  of  sin.  To  bite  other  children,  to  lie,  to 
handle  themselves  impurely,  to  gorge  themselves 
with  sweets,  to  mutilate  small  animals,  are  sinful. 
It  makes  no  difference  that  they  have  not  yet  thought 
about  sin;  did  not  mean,  as  they  say,  to  be  so 
naughty.  The  less  they  know  about  it,  the  more 
they  have  to  learn.  Time  enough,  ten  or  twelve 
years  hence,  to  doubt  the  reality  of  sin,  when  he  or 
she  is  more  accustomed  to  sinning.  To  teach  a 
child,  at  five,  the  unreality  of  its  growing  sins,  is 
a  very  dangerous  training. 

Also,  for  their  spiritual  safety,  punishment  is 
necessary.  Corporal  punishment  it  may  have  to  be; 
punishment  it  must  be.  Christian  Science  is  very 
silent  about  punishment:   her  God  is  all  smiles  and 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  197 

no  tears.  Of  course,  for  Scientist  children,  corporal 
punishment  is  out  of  the  question.  It  would  be 
impossible  on  Sunday  to  deny  pain,  and  on  Monday 
to  inflict  pain.  But  all  the  many  punishments 
which  Nature  gives  to  our  childhood  are  corporal. 
The  child  who  over-eats  on  Sunday  has  a  pain  on 
Monday.  The  reasonableness,  timed  accuracy,  jus- 
tice, eloquence,  helpfulness,  of  that  pain  are  all  of 
them  attributable  to  Infinite  Mind,  whereby  all  of 
them  are  as  real  as  real  can  be.  To  deny  the  reality 
is  to  deny  the  wisdom,  the  work,  the  Logos,  of  the 
pain. 

Also,  for  their  spiritual  safety,  the  utmost  sim- 
plicity, the  utmost  humility,  are  necessary.  They 
must  not  be  prigs.  That  little  girl,  seven  years 
old,  who  said  that  Matter  cannot  feel  pain,  was  a 
prig.  She  was  perfectly  right;  that  is  why  she  was 
a  prig.  Are  simple,  wholesome  children  in  London 
to-day  so  common  ^  Are  neurotic,  mimetic,  self- 
tormented,  half-mad  children  so  rare .?  And,  above 
all,  are  not  the  children  of  Scientist  parents  in  special 
danger,  by  inheritance,  of  what  we  call  a  nervous 
breakdown  ? 

Happily,  not  all  Scientist  parents  take  their  faith 
and  works  into  the  nursery.*  Still,  it  is  done;  and 
the  authorities  love  to  have  it  so. 

*  An  eminent  London  physician  tells  me  that  he  was  called 
into  the  country  to  see  a  sick  child,  and  found  that  the  mother 
was  an  "ardent"  Christian  Scientist;    but,  said  she,  "I  do  not 


198  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

Common-sense  takes  a  different  tone,  when  we 
have  got  past  the  children,  and  come  to  the  influences 
of  Christian  Science  on  men  and  women.  We  are 
all  aware  that  she  has  helped  a  multitude  of  them. 
Outside  the  intense  cases  of  nervous  mimicry  and 
neurasthenia,  published  weekly  in  the  Sentinel,  are 
unpublished  cases,  innumerable,  circle  beyond  circle, 
of  pleasanter  people,  many  of  them  blessed  with 
lives  of  singular  refinement,  who  are  the  better  for 
Christian  Science.  They  are  become  happier, 
healthier,  more  confident,  more  active,  less  apt  for 
gossip  against  their  acquaintance,  and  more  success- 
ful in  business;  whereby  they  have  fallen  in  love 
again  with  Life. 

The  wonder  would  be,  if  there  were  not  such 
cases.  For,  she  has  rediscovered  Quietism.  Here, 
in  London  —  and  let  New  York  speak  for  itself  — 
but  here,  in  our  London,  who  is  quiet }  I  write  as  a 
hospital  doctor,  seeing,  in  many  lives,  excitement, 
unrest,  nervousness,  instability,  aimless  pursuit  of 
incessant  change.  These  are  the  exhaustion  of  rich 
and  poor  alike;  but  the  rich  are  better  able  to  look 
after  themselves.  To  all  of  us,  the  grind  and  thunder 
of  traffic,  the  clamour  of  special  editions,  the  laby- 
rinth of  railways  underground,  the  woven  pattern 
of  electric  wires  overhead,  are  signs  of  the  pace  at 

apply  it  to  my  children."  A  strange  sort  of  God,  if  you  cannot 
bring  young  children  to  Him.  During  a  recent  scare  of  small- 
pox, all  her  household  had  been  vaccinated. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  199 

which  we  live  and  die.  More  and  more,  the  churches 
in  London  are  ceasing  to  preach  Quietism,  and  are 
preaching  Action;  all  political  and  social  problems, 
all  militant  thought,  all  criticism,  quicquid  agunt 
hominesy  concern  them.  Now,  to  the  heart  of  it 
all,  comes  the  sudden  advice  to  everybody,  to  leave 
oflF  believing  in  anything  but  God;  to  sit  still,  and 
think  of  God;  to  leave  all  to  God;  practically,  to 
be  God.  Slowly,  the  Name,  like  the  note  of  a  huge 
bell,  swings  down;  and  the  heavy  waves  of  the  sound 
beat,  and  fall,  and  pass  into  unquiet  lives  till  they 
cease  to  hear  those  discords  which  they  make  in 
themselves  from  birth  to  death.  Such  magic  is  in 
this  Name,  if  it  be  sounded  alone,  to  the  silencing  of 
all  else.  Into  the  restless  legion  of  the  poor,  that  I 
may  say  nothing  of  the  rich,  I  long  for  the  advent 
of  Quietism,  into  us  and  our  Imperial  London, 
haunted  by  the  ghost  of  Imperial  Rome.  It  is  not 
for  me  to  tell  the  churches  what  they  ought  to  preach, 
nor  do  I  know  whether  they  would  now  venture  to 
ask  Londoners  to  be  quiet.  Only,  I  am  sure  that, 
for  the  defeat  of  Christian  Science,  they  must  preach 
Quietism.  But  there  are  two  kinds  of  Quietism, 
one  true,  the  other  false.  True  Quietism  neither 
philosophises,  defines,  argues,  nor  takes  a  side.  It 
feels,  therefore  it  is.  Its  only  product  is  itself.  It 
never  thinks  what  the  world  has  said,  or  is  saying, 
or  will  say;  it  is  indifferent  to  all  evidences,  works, 
and  results.     False  Quietism  arrays  herself  in  rhet- 


200  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

oric,  in  bad  logic,  in  phrases  torn  from  their  context 
and  pinned  on  anyhow,  or  worn  upside  down;  in- 
troduces herself,  explains  her  own  startling  occur- 
rence, wonders  that  you  never  heard  of  her  before, 
talks  of  her  accomplishments,  and  of  her  points  of 
view.  She  is  now  solemn,  now  arch;  she  lectures 
and  scolds  you,  and  then  laughs,  and  hits  you  with 
her  fan.  She  mentions  Infinite  Mind  as  a  new  dis- 
covery, and  prescribes  Omnipotent  Love  as  a  method 
of  treatment.  So-and-so  and  So-and-so  were  cured 
that  way,  at  once,  by  the  Equipollence  of  the  All-in- 
all,  after  the  complete  failure  of  Homoeopathy.  Why, 
so  they  were :  Who  wondersy  and  who  cares  ?  Still, 
there  are  those  pleasant  and  kind  people,  animce 
naturaliter  Christiance,  who  have  found  in  Christian 
Science  that  inspiration  which  is  not  there.  Such 
lives  are  her  triumph ;  let  us  carefully  study  them. 

For  many  of  them,  the  chief  attraction  was  in  the 
obscurity  of  her  philosophical  phrases.  We  all  of 
us  love  a  bit  of  philosophy.  She  has  something  in 
her  pocket  for  all  of  us,  which  tastes  nicer  than 
Christianity,  having  a  more  delicate  flavour  of  Plato 
about  it  —  not  that  it  really  is  flavoured  with  Plato, 
any  more  than  pear-drops  are  flavoured  with  real 
pears.  In  her  company,  you  enjoy  a  cool  sense  of 
detachment,  emancipation,  wider  vision,  maturer 
thought,  more  spiritual  interpretation;  a  great  relief, 
to  get  away  from  the  common  herd  that  worships  a 
corporeal  Jehovah,  and  to  be  in  close  touch  with 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  201 

Being.  She  has  popularised  that  abstraction,  has 
published  Supremum  Ens  in  a  cheap  edition,  as  an 
advertisement.  Her  philosophy  serves  to  attract, 
with  long  and  hard  words,  many  delightful  people, 
who  do  not  see  that  the  words,  as  she  employs  them, 
are  without  meaning. 

Once  they  have  come  to  her,  they  are  able  to 
compound,  out  of  the  elements  oi  Science  and  Health, 
a  good  working  theory  of  their  own  lives.  They 
find  in  that  book  not  Christian  Science,  but  them- 
selves. What  they,  by  the  chemistry  of  thought, 
find  in  it,  was  not  there,  till  they  found  it;  and  is 
not  there  now,  nor  ever  will  be.  They  put  into  it 
their  own  minds,  and  take  them  out  again,  with  an 
odd  feeling  that  something  has  been  done  to  them. 
Remember  the  story  of  Medea's  cauldron.  Medea, 
like  Mrs.  Eddy,  could  work  miracles.  She  killed  a 
lamb,  and  cast  it  into  her  cauldron,  and  muttered 
over  it;  and  the  lamb  jumped  out  alive.  So  these, 
having  killed  Peace  of  Mind,  cast  it  into  Mrs.  Eddy's 
cauldron;  and  she  mutters  over  it,  and  it  lives  again. 
Then  Medea  persuaded  Jason,  by  the  miracle  of  the 
lamb,  to  cast  in  his  aged  father,  who  there  perished 
in  agony.  And  Christian  Science  would  persuade 
her  lovers,  and  does  persuade  them,  to  bring  to  her 
not  only  the  disquietudes  of  the  mind,  but  the  in- 
firmities of  the  body. 

They  who  have  had  least  the  matter  with  them, 
are  most  apt  to  seek  the  consolations   of  her  phi- 


202  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

losophy,  and  to  argue  concerning  Reality  and  Phe- 
nomena. For  example,  a  girl  treads  on  a  nail  —  / 
began  a  mental  protest  against  the  accident.  A  woman 
finds  a  bee  sticking  to  her  child's  chin  —  /  began 
to  voice  the  truth:  one  statement  after  another  came 
to  me.  A  man  has  an  ingrowing  toe-nail  —  Environ- 
ment has  gradually  changed,  and  thought  after  thought 
was  uncovered  and  corrected.  A  woman  has  a  cold 
in  her  head  —  /  saw  it  melt  away  into  its  native  noth- 
ingness. But  they  who  have  had  a  very  bad  time, 
with  years  of  intense  neurasthenia,  are  more  apt 
to  use  the  ordinary  phrases  of  religion,  and  to  say 
that  they  "turned  to  God."  Between  these  two 
ways  of  looking  at  one  result,  it  is  hard  to  find  what 
Christian  Science  thinks  of  the  mystery  of  our  wills. 
Mr.  Dixon,  her  chief  apologist  in  London,  speaks 
of  "the  powerlessness  of  the  will."  *  I  do  not  doubt, 
that  some  cases  of  neurasthenia  healed  in  Christian 
Science  bring  to  their  own  healing  the  exercise  of  their 
own  wills.  Yet,  I  think,  nobody  can  listen  to  the  sort 
of  murmured  talk  that  goes  on  in  a  Christian  Science 
reading-room,  without  feeling  sure  that  the  secret 
of  the  treatment  is,  ultimately,  the  secret  of  hypno- 
tism, of  surrender.  And  I  appeal  to  the  evidence 
of  that  well-defined,  vivid,  positive  little  group  of 

*  See  the  Daily  Telegraph,  August  15,  1907,  which  reports 
him  as  saying,  "Will  is  a  product  of  human  belief ,  and  cooperates 
with  all  the  passions  of  the  human  mind.  In  this  also  lies  its  real 
powerlessnesSy  for  God  alone  is  omnipotent." 


OF   CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  203 

cases,  the  people  who  gave  up  liquor  and  tobacco. 
It  is  certain  that  Christian  Science  has  enabled  many 
of  us  to  give  up  these  habits;  has  done  what  doctors 
and  parsons  and  the  Salvation  Army  and  the  Tem- 
perance Societies  are  incessantly  doing.  This  group 
is  of  the  utmost  interest.  We  are  all  agreed,  that 
no  honour,  which  our  hearts  have  to  give,  is  too  good 
for  him  who  breaks  himself  of  drink,  or  of  taking 
drugs.  Many,  to  win  that  freedom,  have  fought 
in  slow  agony.  To  these  martyrs  of  the  will,  let  us 
stand  bareheaded,  or  go  down  on  our  knees.  He 
who  beats,  at  last,  this  two-in-one  devil  of  mind  and 
body  aching  and  craving  together,  is  of  the  number 
of  the  elect,  and  all  the  bells  of  Heaven  are  set  ring- 
ing over  his  victory.  He,  by  the  naked  strength  of 
his  will,  indomitable,  tormented,  exhausted,  the  mas- 
ter of  his  fate,  the  captain  of  his  soul  —  what  had 
he  to  do  with  Christian  Science  ?  It  is  just  here, 
that  we  catch  her  likeness  to  hypnotism.  We  have 
the  evidence  of  a  convert,  who  was  "  instantaneously 
healed"  of  smoking  and  drinking.  Again  and  again, 
before  she  took  him  in  hand,  he  had  taken  himself  in 
hand,  "for  a  few  weeks,  occasionally  a  few  months, 
through  human  will-power,  which  is  weak  as  water" 
She  healed  him  right  away.  "It  is  now  sixteen 
months  since  I  have  used  liquor  or  tobacco,  and 
during  that  time  I  have  had  no  desire  for  them.  I 
have  proven  the  nothingness,  the  non-power  of  liquor 
and  tobacco  to  give  pleasure,  and  have  turned  to  the 


204  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

only  power,  God,  good,  for  my  pleasure  and  joy." 
The  word  Suggestion  is  writ  large  all  over  this  testi- 
mony. The  instantaneous  healing,  the  loss  of  desire, 
the  assurance  that  the  drink  is  not  pleasant,  the  jingle 
of  the  sound  of  God  and  good,  all  are  hypnotic* 
A  very  useful  method  in  many  cases;  but  there  is 
higher  achievement  in  the  man  who,  passionately  long- 
ing for  a  drink,  and  fighting  hard  against  its  proven 
power  to  give  pleasure,  turns  to  his  God,  not  for 
pleasure,  but  for  pain.  Common-sense,  of  course, 
is  not  against  hypnotism.  One  way  or  another,  a 
measure  of  hypnotism  is  in  all  social  intercourse :  the 
word  suggestion  is  of  incessant  use,  and  there  is 
no  line  between  suggesting  to  a  man  that  he  should 
take  no  more  alcohol  and  suggesting  to  him  that  he 
should  not  lose  his  umbrella.  Our  life  is  suggestion, 
or  self-suggestion,  from  end  to  end.  The  point  is, 
that  Christian  Science,  to  reclaim  the  drunkard,  does 
not  glorify,  but  cheapens,  the  power  of  the  will. 

It  is  the  same  with  all  her  work.  What  is  her  work, 
if  it  be  not  suggestion .?  To  be  healed  by  reading  a 
book,  even  by  repeating  a  sentence,  is  to  be  healed 
by  suggestion.     The  "absent  treatment,"  of  course, 

*  "Christian  Science  silences  human  will.  Will-power  is  but  a 
product  of  belief,  and  this  belief  commits  depredations  on  har- 
mony. Human  will  is  an  animal  propensity,  not  a  faculty  of 
Soul.  Hence  it  cannot  govern  man  aright."  S.  &  H.,  p.  445, 
490.  For  cases  healed  of  drink  by  Chrisdan  Science,  see  S.  &  H., 
pp.  620,  629,  632,  635. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  205 

is   self-suggestion.     We  have  some  good  opinions  to 
this  effect :  — 

1.  Dr.  Polk,  Dean  of  the  Medical  Department,  Cornell  Uni- 
versity.—  "Take  Science  and  Healthy  separate  yourself  from 
disturbing  surroundings,  open  its  pages  with  a  mind  even  some- 
what prejudiced,  set  yourself  seriously  to  the  task  of  comprehend- 
ing its  various  iterations  and  reiterations,  its  statements  backward, 
its  statements  forward,  its  statements  sidewise,  and  every  other 
wise,  of  its  initial  proposition,  throughout  its  569  pages,  and  I  know 
there  are  many  of  you  who,  long  before  you  had  fathomed  its  depths, 
would  find  yourselves  in  a  state  of  mental  vacuity  fit  for  the  action 
of  *  suggestion.***     (New  York  Medical  Journaly  April  6,  1901.) 

2.  Dean  Hart.  —  "If  any  cure  (in  mental  therapeutics)  be 
effected,  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  truth  or  untruth  of  the  par- 
ticular theory  of  the  professor;  it  is  simply  that  by  his  methods 
the  mind  is  stimulated  to  reassert  itself.  Success  greatly,  nay, 
often  entirely,  depends  upon  the  disposition  of  the  mind  of  the 
patient,  the  nerval  susceptibility,  and  the  strength  of  the  expecta- 
tion. If  these  be  favourable,  then  a  perusal  of  Mrs.  Eddy*s  book 
is  no  small  mesmerising  condition.  I  have  found  that  Science  and 
Health  is  the  best  mode  of  inducing  the  mesmeric  sleep  I  have  ever 
experienced.  The  repetition  of  senseless  sentences,  with  constantly 
changing  signification  of  words,  whose  new  meanings  have  to  be 
gleaned  from  the  context,  produces  a  strange  maze  which  dazes 
the  mind  and  produces  a  mesmeric  condition.  The  modus  operandi 
of  the  Christian  Scientist  healer  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  that 
of  the  hypnotist.  By  the  silence,  the  motionless  sitting,  the  sub- 
dued voice,  the  cabalistic  sentences  —  for  they  are  senseless,  and 
cannot  excite  the  intelligence  —  the  mind  is  soothed ;  then  the  sug- 
gestion is  given,  and,  in  the  denial  of  disease,  the  repeated  asser- 
tion of  particular  cure  is  pointedly  made  and  impressed.**  —  An 
Examination  of  Christian  Science,  By  H.  Martyn  Hart,  D.D. 
Dean   of  Denver.     James    Pott,   New  York,    1897.     Quoted   in 


2o6  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

Miss  Feilding's  Faith-Healing  and  Christian  Science,     Duckworth 
and  Co.,  London,  1899. 

3.  The  Rev.  P.  C.  Woolcott.  —  "What  really  happens  when 
you  attack  these  tiresome,  monotonous  pages,  is  this :  you  struggle 
at  first  to  master  the  difficulties  and  get  at  the  meaning.  If  you 
become  convinced  that  it  is  not  worth  the  effort,  you  dismiss  the 
matter  from  your  mind,  and  that  is  the  end  of  it.  But,  if  you 
force  yourself  to  the  task,  and  pore  over  the  pages,  you  soon  fall 
into  a  condition  of  mental  dizziness  or  vertigo.  The  reasoning 
faculties  are  benumbed,  your  critical  judgment  is  lulled  to  sleep, 
and  suggestion  dominates  your  intellect."  —  What  is  Christian 
Science?    P.  C.  Woolcott.     The  Revell  Company. 

If  Christian  Science  be  not  suggestion,  what  is 
she  ?  Can  we  call  her  an  "  intellectual  conversion," 
so  long  as  she  treats  hens  and  Pekin  ducks  and 
india-rubber  plants .?  Can  we  call  her  Christian, 
while  she  spends  millions  of  dollars,  and  gives  noth- 
ing to  charities  ?  Can  we  call  her  Science,  while  she 
says  that  Dan  means  animal  magnetism,  and  Gihon 
means  Votes  for  Women }  Or  a  philosophy,  when 
she  says  that  Mind  is  the  only  I,  or  Us  .?  Or  ethics, 
when  she  speaks  of  the  real  powerlessness  of  the  will  ^. 
Or  psychology,  when  she  cannot  say  what  she  means 
by  mortal  mind  .?  Or  a  system  of  healing,  when  she 
does  not  attempt  to  distinguish  functional  paralysis 
from  degeneration  of  the  cord,  and  sits  four  days  by 
a  woman  in  labour  with  an  abnormal  presentation .? 
She  is  suggestion;  and  all  suggestion  is  as  old  as  the 
hills. 

But  the  animce  naturaliter  Christiance,  the  innumer- 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  207 

able  lives  that  are  the  better  for  her,  are  they  to  be 
explained  away  by  a  fool  with  a  pen  in  his  hand  ? 
Heaven  forbid;  only,  there  are  opposing  cases.  I 
hear  of  one  person  who  was  kept  out  of  an  asylum  by 
her;  and  of  others,  who  were  not.  I  read  of  homes 
where  she  has  brought  peace,  and  of  homes  where 
she  has  brought  misery.  We  must  see  both  sides 
of  her  work.  Her  apologists  show  us  one;  Mr. 
Lyman  Powell  has  seen  both,  and  everybody  ought 
to  study  his  book.  For  we,  in  this  country,  have 
had  less  opportunity  to  judge  her  spiritual  gains  and 
losses.  But  see  now,  what  are  her  gains.  By  her, 
many  people  have  been  led  to  make  the  best  of  this 
world,  to  be  indifferent  to  old  aches  and  ailments; 
they  worry  less,  they  take  a  happier  view  of  small 
troubles,  are  more  confident,  .quicker  to  read  Earth 
in  terms  of  Heaven.  But  millions  of  people  have 
done  all  that,  who  never  heard  of  Science  and  Health. 
The  grace  of  trying  to  be  good  began  not  later 
than  Adam  and  Eve.  Her  spiritual  ministrations  are 
poor  stuff  in  contrast  with  Plato,  Aristotle,  and 
Marcus  Aurelius.  There  is  more  divine  wisdom 
in  a  page  of  them  than  in  all  her  writings,  more  love 
of  God  in  the  death  of  Socrates  than  in  the  Scientist 
life.  And,  though  we  recognise  her  gains,  and  rate 
them  at  their  full  value,  yet  her  losses  far  exceed  them. 
She  has  lost  "the  God  of  things  as  they  are."  She 
has  neglected  the  old-fashioned  virtues  —  humility, 
charity,  endurance,  regard  for  accuracy,  reverence 


2o8  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

for  authority;  and  the  corner-stone  of  her  church  is 
not  Jesus  Christ,  whatever  she  may  say,  but  her  own 
vanity.  She  is  cruel  to  babies  and  young  children; 
she  is  worse  than  close-fisted  over  her  money;  she 
despises  Christianity,  and  is  at  open  war  with  Ex- 
perience and  Common-sense.  The  heaviness  of 
these  losses,  and  the  piling  up  of  her  material  wealth, 
are  driving  her  to  spiritual  bankruptcy. 

The  mention  of  Common-sense  brings  this  chapter 
back  to  where  it  began.  How  can  she  refuse  to  stand 
before  that  judgment  seat  ?  For  she  has  already 
stood  there.  She  consented,  at  last,  after  long 
warfare  against  sanitary  boards,  to  recognise  con- 
tagious diseases.  Here  is  Mrs.  Eddy's  curious 
order :  — 

I  have  always  believed  that  Christian  Scientists  should  be 
law-abiding.  Rather  than  quarrel  over  vaccination,  I  recom- 
mend that  if  the  law  demand  an  individual  to  submit  to  this  process 
he  obey  the  law  and  then  appeal  to  the  gospel  to  save  him  from 
any  bad  effects.  This  statement  should  be  so  interpreted  as  to 
apply,  on  the  basis  of  Christian  Science,  to  the  reporting  of  conta- 
gion to  the  proper  authorities  when  the  law  so  requires. 

Also,  she  has  lately  consented  to  recognise  the 
doctor,  if  not  in  life,  yet  after  death  —  even  a  few 
days  or  hours  before  death :  — 

It  is  announced  that  Mrs.  Eddy  has  issued  a  new  by-law  to 
her  disciples,  requiring  them  to  call  in  a  medical  practitioner  for 
the  purpose  of  ascertaining  and  certifying  the  cause  of  death  of 
members  of  their  family.    This  action  is  said  to  be  the  outcome 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  209 

of  the  numerous  prosecutions  of  Christian  Scientists  which  have 
lately  taken  place  in  various  States  of  the  Union.  —  Brit,  Med, 
Journ.,  Sept.  28,  1907. 

Mrs.  Augusta  Stetson,  the  well-known  Christian  Scientist 
teacher  and  practitioner  and  leader  of  the  New  York  Branch, 
has  startled  the  faithful  by  summoning  medical  aid.  She  is  the 
first  of  the  Christian  Scientist  leaders  to  take  this  step  since  Mrs. 
Eddy  issued  the  new  regulations  permitting  doctors  to  be  called 
in.  This  case  is  the  more  surprising,  as  Mrs.  Stetson  is  virtually 
the  understudy  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  is  regarded  as  her  successor.  — 
Birmingham  Post,  Oct.  21,  1907. 

But,  of  course,  the  doctor,  called  in  when  the 
patient,  under  Christian  Science,  is  moribund  or 
dead,  may  refuse  to  sign  a  death-certificate,  and  may 
compel  a  public  inquiry.  (See  the  newspapers, 
Oct.  31,  1906;  Jan.  II,  1908;  Feb.  7,  1908,  etc., 
for  such  cases.) 

It  comes  to  this,  that  Christian  Science  is  an  old 
offender.  Common-sense,  believing  in  short  sen- 
tences, has  convicted  her  a  dozen  times,  and  is  tired 
of  seeing  her  name  on  the  charge-list.  Always, 
she  appeals  against  her  sentence;  carries  her  case 
into  the  High  Court  of  Medicine,  Religion,  and 
Philosophy;  conducts  it  herself,  a  most  wearisome 
orator,  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  Absolute  Reality. 
Always,  the  decision  of  Common-sense  is  upheld, 
and  she  has  to  pay  the  costs  of  the  appeal.  Her 
face  and  figure,  her  bundle  of  documents,  her  long 
speeches  and  many  grievances,  are  well  known  to 
the   Court.     fFe   have   heard  you    before,    they   tell 


210  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

her;  we  have  listened  patiently  to  you.  The  appeal 
is  dismissed.  They  have  not  once  reversed  the 
judgment  of  Common-sense,  nor  ever  will.  For 
Common-sense,  toward  Christian  Science,  is  moved 
neither  by  prejudice,  nor  by  hearsay,  nor  by  self- 
interest.  We  examine  her  testimonials,  and  find 
them  worthless.  We  are  told  that  she  is  the  Christ 
come  again,  and  we  can  see  that  she  is  not.  We 
listen  to  her  philosophical  talk,  and  observe  that 
she  is  illiterate,  and  ignorant  of  the  rudiments  of 
logic.  We  admit,  and  are  glad,  that  she  has  enabled 
thousands  of  nervous  persons  to  leave  off  worrying, 
and  has  cured  many  "functional  disorders";  but 
she  has  done  that,  not  by  revelation,  but  by  sugges- 
tion. The  healed,  whom  she  incessantly  advertises, 
are  but  a  few,  compared  with  them  that  are  whole, 
who  hate  the  very  name  of  Christian  Science  — 

Country  folks  who  live  beneath 
The  shadow  of  the  steeple; 
The  parson  and  the  parson's  wife, 
And  mostly  married  people  — 

and  a  thousand  thousand  brave  and  quiet  lives, 
the  un-named  legion  of  good  non-Scientists.  They 
bear,  not  deny,  pain;  they  confess,  not  confuse,  the 
reality  of  sin;  they  face,  not  outface,  death.  Only, 
they  cannot  stand  the  present  apologists  of  Chris- 
tian Science;  for  example,  Captain  Douglas  Bayne's 
exhortation  —  ^ 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  211 

That  which  is  not,  however  much  it  seemeth  to  be,  has  no  entity, 
and  cannot,  therefore,  be  Truth.  .  .  .  We  must  first  hypothesise 
Primal  Cause,  and  then  endeavour  to  estabhsh  this  hypothesis, 
not  only  as  reasonable,  but  as  the  only  hypothesis  we  can  reasonably 
entertain.  The  hypothesis  is  as  follows :  —  {a)  There  is  only  one 
Primal  Cause;  (h)  it  is  Infinite,  i.e.  filling  all  space,  having  neither 
beginning  nor  ending;  {c)  it  is  Good.  .  .  .  Could  the  nature  of 
this  Cause  be  a  mixture  of  Good  and  Evil  ?  Certainly  not,  unless 
a  negation  can  be  cause,  and  that  is  impossible,  since  a  negation 
has  no  claim  to  consideration,  is  in  fact  NOTHING,  unless  that 
which  it  negates  is  untrue,  etc.* 

Or  take  Mr.  Kimball,  in  May  of  this  year,  in  the 
Queen's  Hall,  London,  and  at  Leeds.  Mortal  mind, 
says  he,  is  "a  riot  of  ignorance  and  superstition  and 
vice  and  sin  and  fear."  Disease,  says  he,  is  "illegiti- 
mate, monstrous,  abnormal,  unrighteous,  unlawful, 
ungodlike,  and  not  necessary."  Christ,  says  he, 
"upset  the  law  of  sickness  and  death:  cast  out  evil 
as  though  it  were  nothing:  His  whole  purpose  was 
the  expulsion  of  an  illegitimate  monstrosity  that  had 
no  right  to  exist."     Was  there  ever  such  a  travesty 

*  Is  not  an  entity,  says  Christian  Science :  has  no  entity,  says 
Captain  Baynes.  This  poor  word,  Entity!  Imagine  a  cause 
filling  space,  as  if  it  were  a  pound  of  cheese.  All  causes  are 
infinite.  To  be  subject  to  space  is  to  be  finite.  Causes  no  more 
fill  space  than  metaphysics  take  time.  Causes  cannot  be  good, 
any  more  than  propositions  of  Euclid  can  be  subject  to  fits  of 
depression.  How  can  that,  which  is  not,  seem  to  be  ?  It  must 
be,  to  seem  to  be.  What  is  the  nature  of  a  cause  ?  How  can 
the  ofF-chance,  of  a  negation  negating  a  lie,  enable  Primal  Cause 
to  be  of  a  Mixed  Nature  ?     And  so  on,  and  so  on. 


212  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

of  the  Passion  ?  "  Fear  and  sin  are  chief  among  the 
influences  that  procure  the  sickness  of  humanity." 
What  of  the  millions  of  diseased  babies  ?  "  Christian 
Scientists  do  not  stand  opposed  to  the  work  of  the 
skilful  surgeon."  But  they  do:  see  Chapter  VH. 
passim.  Ah,  but  Mr.  Kimball  was  "a  dying  man" 
twenty-one  years  ago.  For  similar  cases,  see  Chapter 
VI.  passim.  So  have  I  been  "a  dying  man,"  if  I 
choose  to  call  it  dying,  to  be  ill. 

Or  take  Mr.  Dixon:  "To  the  children  in  the 
Sunday-school  it  is  perfectly  natural  that  God  should 
keep  them  well  and  happy.  They  expect  nothing 
less."  But,  from  their  parents,  they  get  less. 
Mother  is  the  name  for  God,  says  Thackeray,  in  the 
lips  and  hearts  of  little  children.  All  the  same,  when 
Five-year-old  fell  out  of  the  window,  her  mother  went 
off  to  a  hymn-singing;  and  what  of  the  children  who 
are  let  die  that  way  } 

Captain  Baynes,  Mr.  Kimball,  and  Mr.  Dixon 
represent  here  in  London  to-day  the  faith  and  works 
of  Christian  Science :  they  stand  up  for  her  against 
Common-sense,  which  they  call  Mortal  Mind,  that 
carnal  mind  which  is  at  enmity  with  God.  They,  in 
Christian  Science,  "have  the  mind  of  Christ":  we, 
in  Common-sense,  have  not.  We  move  in  a  land  of 
shadows,  they  in  light:  we  believe  in  a  corporeal 
Jehovah,  they  are  on  easy  terms  with  Absolute 
Reality.  Common-sense,  they  tell  us,  has  played  us 
false :  there  is  no  Common-sense  in  God,  no  God  in 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  213 

Common-sense.  But  there  is.  This  world,  in  every 
particle  of  its  fabric,  every  instant  of  its  presence  in 
us,  is  what  Berkeley  calls  it,  a  "divine  language." 
Its  laws,  forces,  causes,  effects,  are  metaphysical. 
Here,  as  I  sit  writing,  the  warmth  of  my  fire,  the 
light  of  my  lamp,  the  feel  of  my  pen,  the  smoke  of 
my  cigarette,  are  Absolute  Reality  at  work  in  me: 
here,  without  leaving  my  chair,  I  am  in  that  Eternal 
Realm  of  Infinite  Truth,  which  Christian  Science 
claims  as  her  discovery.  Till  the  angles  at  the  base 
of  an  isosceles  triangle  cease  to  be  equal,  and  two 
and  two  are  tired  of  making  four,  the  unity  of  Mortal 
Mind  and  Matter  will  be  Eternally  and  Absolutely 
Real.  I  cannot  even  remember  my  umbrella  with- 
out Infinite  Mind.  For,  if  Infinite  Mind  were  not, 
there  would  be  neither  umbrella  to  be  remembered, 
nor  I  to  remember  it. 


214  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

DC 

AUTHORITY   AND   CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE 

It  is  strange,  how  Mortal  Mind  is  full  of  quota- 
tions. They  hang  in  the  labyrinth  of  memory,  as  the 
washing  hangs  in  the  alleys  of  Genoa.  So  it  has 
been  with  me,  wandering  down  this  new  thorough- 
fare of  Christian  Science,  this  wide  and  fashionable 
road,  cut,  regardless  of  beauty,  reckless  of  expense, 
through  many  quiet  haunts  and  rookeries  of  Philos- 
ophy and  Religion.  To  right  and  left  of  me  were 
the  crooked  passages,  the  sudden  corners,  the  high 
and  crowded  tenement-houses  of  Thought  —  all  the 
dear,  familiar,  unchanged  part  of  the  city  not  made 
with  hands.  Down  all  these  lanes  and  by-ways,  I 
beheld,  in  the  mind's  eye,  old  texts  and  phrases, 
dangling  and  fluttering  in  the  open  air  and  the 
sunshine.  There  they  were,  threadbare,  patched, 
antiquated,  yet  clean  and  wholesome,  and  fit  for 
immediate  use;  to  be  worn,  but  not  to  be  displayed 
in  the  wearing;  these  undergarments  of  the  soul, 
this  spiritual  body-linen,  come  down  in  the  world, 
and  still  marked  with  the  initials  of  saints,  poets, 
philosophers,  leaders  of  sciences,  men  of  genius. 
Thin  and  faded  raiment  and  remnant,  yet  they  had 
lain,  when  they  were  new,  next  the  hearts  of  the 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  215 

immortals.  Now,  washed  and  aired  and  mended 
for  the  ten-thousandth  time,  they  are  what  they 
were  in  the  beginning.  They  did  belong,  once,  to 
the  immortals,  who  have  Authority.  Not  had,  but 
have.  It  is  impossible  for  Christian  Science  to 
explain  away  Authority.  Do  we  not  all  know,  that 
there  have  been  men  and  women  who,  dead  long 
ago,  still  have  and  use  the  right  of  telling  us  how  we 
ought  to  think  and  act .?  We  take  them  for  granted, 
like  the  weather  and  the  stars :  they  are  in  our  life 
as  the  alphabet  in  literature,  the  octave  in  music. 
What  they  say,  and  the  way  in  which  they  say  it, 
are  final.  In  us,  they  live  and  rule  and  have  the 
last  word.  It  was  the  last  word,  long  before  we 
began  to  talk,  and  will  be  the  last  word,  long  after 
we  are  dead  and  forgotten.  Therefore,  they  shall 
have  it  here,  two  of  them  for  all  of  them.  One  is 
the  writer  of  the  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus  —  if  that 
book,  unlike  Science  and  Health,  be  the  work  of  one 
writer  —  and  the  other  is  Pope.  Of  the  Book  of 
Ecclesiasticus  I  am  profoundly  ignorant:  only, 
seeing  what  it  says  of  doctors,  I  understand  why 
Christian  Science  excludes  the  Apocrypha,  and  limits 
herself  to  "the  canonical  writings."  Of  Pope,  I 
know  not  much  more,  but  that  he  lived  in  a  society 
no  less  artificial  and  emotional  than  London  to-day. 
Also,  he  was  a  Catholic,  and  a  gentleman,  and  a 
cripple:  he  had  "spinal  trouble,"  real  spinal  trouble, 
not  that  soft  which  is  healed  by  Christian  Science. 


2i6  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 


FROM  THE   BOOK  OF  ECCLESIASTICUS 

Honour  a  physician  with  the  honour  due  unto  him  for  the  uses 
which  ye  may  have  of  him :  for  the  Lord  hath  created  him. 

For  of  the  most  High  cometh  heahng,  and  he  shall  receive 
honour  of  the  king. 

The  skill  of  the  physician  shall  lift  up  his  head :  and  in  the 
sight  of  great  men  he  shall  be  in  admiration. 

The  Lord  hath  created  medicines  out  of  the  earth;  and  he 
that  is  wise  will  not  abhor  them. 

Of  such  doth  the  apothecary  make  a  confection;  and  of  his 
works  there  is  no  end;  and  from  him  is  peace  over  all  the  earth. 

My  son,  in  thy  sickness  be  not  negligent:  but  pray  unto  the 
Lord,  and  he  will  make  thee  whole. 

Leave  off  from  sin,  and  order  thine  hands  aright,  and  cleanse 
thy  heart  from  all  wickedness. 

Give  a  sweet  savour,  and  a  memorial  of  fine  flour;  and  make 
a  fat  offering,  as  not  being. 

Then  give  place  to  the  physician,  for  the  Lord  hath  created  him : 
let  him  not  go  from  thee,  for  thou  hast  need  of  him. 

There  is  a  time  when  in  their  hands  there  is  good  success. 

For  they  shall  also  pray  unto  the  Lord,  that  he  would  prosper 
that,  which  they  give  for  ease  and  remedy  to  prolong  life. 

He  that  sinneth  before  his  Maker,  let  him  fall  into  the  hand  of 
the  physician. 

n 


Presumptuous  Man  I    The  reason  would'st  thou  find, 
Why  formed  so  weak,  so  little,  and  so  blind  ? 
First,  if  thou  can'st,  the  harder  reason  guess, 
Why  formed  no  weaker,  blinder,  and  no  less. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  217 

Of  systems  possible,  if  'tis  confest 

That  wisdom  infinite  must  form  the  best, 

Where  all  must  fall  or  not  coherent  be, 

And  all  that  rises,  rise  in  due  degree; 

Then,  in  the  scale  of  reasoning  life,  *tis  plain. 

There  must  be,  somewhere,  such  a  rank  as  man: 

And  all  the  question  (wrangle  e*er  so  long) 

Is  only  this,  if  God  has  placed  him  wrong  ? 

So  Man,  who  here  seems  principal  alone. 
Perhaps  acts  second  to  some  sphere  unknown. 
Touches  some  wheel,  or  verges  to  some  goal; 
*Tis  but  a  part  we  see,  and  not  a  whole. 
•  •  •  •  •  • 

Go,  wiser  thou !   and,  in  thy  scale  of  sense, 
Weigh  thy  opinion  against  Providence; 
Call  imperfection  what  thou  fanciest  such. 
Say,  here  He  gives  too  little,  there  too  much: 
Destroy  all  creatures  for  thy  sport  or  gust. 
Yet  cry,  If  man's  unhappy,  God's  unjust; 
If  man  alone  engross  not  Heaven's  high  care. 
Alone  made  perfect  here,  immortal  there: 
Snatch  from  His  hand  the  balance  and  the  rod, 
Rejudge  His  justice,  be  the  God  of  God. 
In  pride,  in  reasoning  pride,  our  error  Hes; 
All  quit  their  sphere,  and  rush  into  the  skies. 
Pride  still  is  aiming  at  the  blest  abodes; 
Men  would  be  angels,  angels  would  be  gods. 
Aspiring  to  be  gods,  if  angels  fell. 
Aspiring  to  be  angels,  men  rebel : 
And  who  but  wishes  to  invert  the  laws 
Of  order,  sins  against  th'  Eternal  Cause. 


2i8  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

The  bliss  of  Man  (could  pride  that  blessing  find) 
Is  not  to  think  or  act  above  mankind; 
No  powers  of  body  or  of  soul  to  share. 
But  what  his  nature  and  his  state  can  bear. 


See,  through  this  air,  this  ocean,  and  this  earth. 
All  nature  quick,  and  bursting  into  birth. 
Above,  how  high,  progressive  life  may  go: 
Around,  how  wide :  how  deep  extend  below. 
Vast  chain  of  being  I   which  from  God  began, 
Nature*s  ethereal,  human  angel,  man, 
Beast,  bird,  fish,  insect,  what  no  eye  can  see, 
No  glass  can  reach  —  From  Infinite  to  thee, 
From  thee  to  nothing. 

■  •  •  •  •  • 

All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
Whose  body  Nature  is,  and  God  the  soul : 
That,  changed  through  all,  and  yet  in  all  the  same 
Great  in  the  earth  as  in  th'  ethereal  frame. 
Warms  in  the  sun,  refreshes  in  the  breeze, 
Glows  in  the  stars,  and  blossoms  in  the  trees. 
Lives  through  all  life,  extends  through  all  extent. 
Spreads  undivided,  operates  unspent. 
Breathes  in  our  soul,  informs  our  mortal  part, 
As  full,  as  perfect,  in  a  hair  as  heart: 
As  full,  as  perfect,  in  vile  man  that  mourns 
As  the  rapt  seraph  that  adores  and  burns: 
To  Him  no  high,  no  low,  no  great,  no  small; 
He  fills,  He  bounds,  connects,  and  equals  all. 

Know  then  thyself,  presume  not  God  to  scan : 
The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man, 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  219 

Placed  on  this  isthmus  of  a  middle  state, 

A  being  darkly  wise,  and  rudely  great : 

With  too  much  knowledge  for  the  sceptic  side. 

With  too  much  weakness  for  the  stoic's  pride, 

He  hangs  between;   in  doubt  to  act,  or  rest; 

In  doubt  to  deem  himself  a  god,  or  beast; 

In  doubt  his  mind  or  body  to  prefer; 

Bom  but  to  die,  and  reasoning  but  to  err; 

Alike  in  ignorance  —  his  reason  such  — 

Whether  he  thinks  too  little,  or  too  much; 

Chaos  of  thought  and  passion,  all  confused; 

Still  by  himself  abused,  or  disabused; 

Created  half  to  rise,  and  half  to  fall ; 

Great  lord  of  all  things,  yet  a  prey  to  all ; 

Sole  judge  of  truth,  in  endless  error  hurled; 

The  glory,  jest,  and  riddle  of  the  world. 

Go,  wondrous  creature  I     Mount  where  science  guides, 

Go,  measure  earth,  weigh  air,  and  state  the  tides; 

Instruct  the  planets  in  what  orb  to  run. 

Correct  old  time,  and  regulate  the  sun: 

Go,  soar  with  Plato  to  th*  empyreal  sphere. 

To  the  first  good,  first  perfect,  and  first  fair; 

Or  tread  the  mazy  round  his  followers  trod. 

And  quitting  sense  call  imitating  God; 

As  Eastern  priests  in  giddy  circles  run, 

And  turn  their  heads,  to  imitate  the  sun. 

Go,  teach  Eternal  Wisdom  how  to  rule  — 

Then  drop  into  thyself,  and  be  a  fool. 

Here  is  that  Authority  which  is  not  in  Christian 
Science:  the  last  word,  the  plain  truth,  the  Alpha 
and  Omega  of  all  that  is  to  be  said  about  Mortal 
Mind.     We  know  it  is  true,  for  we  see  it  in  the  un- 


220  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

reckoned  lives  which  make  this  world,  in  spite  of 
Christian  Science,  a  wholesome  and  intelligible 
place.  By  the  light  of  these  quiet  lives  she  is  "one 
more  wrong  done  to  man,  one  more  insult  to  God." 
Of  course,  there  are  many  who  praise  Christian 
Science,  and  count  themselves  among  her  followers, 
yet  send  at  once  for  the  doctor  in  time  of  need.  They 
enjoy  her  philosophical  pose,  the  grand  abstract 
words,  the  vague  and  immense  outlook.  It  is  now, 
as  it  was  more  than  thirty  years  ago,  when  Mrs. 
Eddy,  then  Mrs.  Glover,  started  teaching  in  Lynn :  — 

Some  of  her  students  still  declare,  that  what  they  got  from 
her  was  beyond  equivalent  in  gold  or  silver.  They  speak  of  a 
certain  emotional  exaltation  which  she  was  able  to  impart  in  her 
class-room ;  a  feeling  so  strong  that  it  was  like  the  birth  of  a  new 
understanding,  and  seemed  to  open  to  them  a  new  heaven  and  a 
new  earth.  Some  of  Mrs.  Glover's  students  experienced  this  in 
a  very  slight  degree;  but  such  as  were  imaginative  and  emotional, 
and  especially  those  who  had  something  of  the  mystic  in  their 
nature,  came  out  of  her  class-room  to  find  that  for  them  the  world 
had  changed.  They  lived  by  a  new  set  of  values;  the  colour 
seemed  to  fade  out  of  the  physical  world  about  them;  men  and 
women  became  shadow-like,  and  their  own  humanity  grew  pale. 
The  reality  of  pain  and  pleasure,  sin  and  grief,  love  and  death, 
once  denied,  the  only  positive  thing  in  their  lives  was  their  belief 
—  and  that  was  almost  wholly  negation.  One  of  the  students  who 
was  closest  to  Mrs.  Glover  at  that  time  says,  that  to  him  the  world 
outside  her  little  circle  seemed  like  a  madhouse,  where  each  inmate 
was  given  over  to  his  delusion  of  love  or  gain  or  ambition;  and  the 
problem  which  confronted  him  was  how  to  awaken  them  from 
the  absurdity  of  their  pursuit.  —  The  Milmine  Articles  in  McClure^s 
Magazine. 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  221 

So  it  is  now,  more  or  less,  with  them  who  admire 
the  sayings,  apart  from  the  doings,  of  Christian 
Science.  They  have  not  her  dislike  of  the  parson 
and  the  doctor  —  whom  they  find  a  bit  narrow,  but 
nothing  worse  than  that.  Into  these  gentle  and  kind 
lives,  is  born  a  new  sense  of  the  depth  of  the  truth 
older  than  Christianity,  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  is 
within  us.  They  were  tired  of  trivial  affairs,  dull 
amusements,  dull  books,  conventional  talk,  youth 
gone,  death  ahead.  Polite  and  punctual  and  well, 
daily  fed  and  dressed  and  taken  for  granted,  they 
found  themselves  monotonous.  All  the  fireworks  of 
life  had  long  ago  been  let  off,  and  all  its  airy  music 
was  at  an  end.  Nothing  wonderful  or  passionate 
came  their  way,  or  would  come.  Then,  they  heard 
of  this  development  of  religion,  as  they  took  it  to  be, 
and  were  glad  of  it.  God  is  All-in-all :  here,  in  these 
five  words,  they  were  sure  that  they  had  got  hold,  at 
last,  of  all  that  there  is  to  be  held.  But  they  still  send, 
in  the  time  of  their  need,  for  the  doctor.  Only,  they 
do  not  send  for  him  unless  they  do  need  him.  For 
he  lives  round  the  corner,  and  may  be  out :  whereas 
God  is  always  in  the  house  with  them.  Oh,  the 
cleverness  of  Christian  Science,  to  be  selling  as  a 
novelty,  at  three  dollars,  what  was  old  for  centuries 
before  Christ. 

It  is  not  far,  from  the  happiness  of  these  lives, 
to  the  cases  of  neurasthenia  which  are  healed  by 
Christian  Science.     If  she  did  not  heal  these  cases, 


222  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

there  would  be  something  else  to  heal  them :  It 
might  be  faith,  or  it  might  be  marriage,  or  a  legacy, 
or  a  bad  fright,  or  some  final  doctor,  or  friend,  or 
quack  who  could  enforce  his  will  on  the  patient. 
Every  text-book  of  Psychology  is  a  guide-book  to 
this  way  of  healing. 

Last,  come  the  disastrous  cases  of  the  failure, 
and  worse  than  failure,  of  Christian  Science.  They 
speak  for  themselves,  and  I  shall  say  no  more  of 
them.  If  I,  in  a  few  weeks,  collected  such  a  list, 
there  must  be  thousands  of  similar  cases  awaiting 
collection. 

Of  this  we  may  be  sure,  that,  as  we  are  intended 
to  live,  so  we  are  intended  to  die :  for  which  purpose. 
Nature  provides  injuries  and  diseases.  A  man  may 
doubt  whether  he  ought  to  have  been  born :  he  cannot 
doubt  that  he  ought,  sooner  or  later,  to  be  dead. 
"If  it  be  now,  'tis  not  to  come;  if  it  be  not  to  come, 
it  will  be  now;  if  it  be  not  now,  yet  it  will  come :  the 
readiness  is  all."  He  would  like  to  live  longer  than 
Hamlet,  but  not  so  long  as  Lear  — 

Oh,  let  him  pass.     He  hates  him, 
That  would  upon  the  rack  of  this  tough  world 
Stretch  him  out  longer.     He  is  gone  indeed. 
The  wonder  is,  he  hath  endured  so  long: 
He  but  usurped  his  life. 

Shakspeare  recalls  Juvenal :  — 

Orandum  est,  ut  sit  mens  sana  in  corpore  sano. 
Fortem  posce  animum,  mortis  terrore  carentem, 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  223 

Qui  spatium  vitae  extremum  inter  munera  ponat 
Naturae  — 

Juvenal  recalls  other  poets :  — 

What  I  call  God, 
And  fools  call  Nature  — 

All  Nature  is  but  Art,  unknown  to  thee: 

All  chance,  direction,  that  thou  canst  not  see. 

Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  Him. 

Thou  madest  Life  in  man  and  brute: 
Thou  madest  Death  — 

So  full  of  quotations  is  mortal  mind.  It  is  pleas- 
ant, to  be  able  to  catch  sight  of  them,  down  the 
old  side-streets  of  memory,  as  I  stand  on  this  ugly 
new  road  of  Christian  Science,  which  goes  from 
nowhere  to  nowhere. 

Authority  bears  witness,  that  the  God  of  things 
as  they  are  is  the  God  of  us  as  we  are.  The  reality 
of  our  mortal  plane  is  His  reality;  and,  if  mortal 
mind  be  an  illusion,  so  is  He.  To  deny  the  reality 
of  evil  and  sin,  pain  and  death,  is  to  deny  Him. 
They  are  real,  for  they  are  in  us,  who  are  real,  for 
we  are  in  Him.  But  see  once  more,  by  the  charges 
here  made  against  her,  —  and  I  wish  that  I  had  done 
it  better  —  how  Christian  Science  tries  to  wreck  these 
old  facts,  like  a  witch  sailing  cracked  egg-shells  to 
sink  real  ships. 

Chapter  I.  —  She  is  ignorant  of  the  first  principles 


224  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

of  Philosophy,  and  makes  use  of  long  words  without 
apprehension  of  their  meaning.  She  imagines  that 
the  reality  of  God  excludes,  whereas  it  includes,  the 
reality  of  the  material  world.  Chapter  II.  —  She 
cannot  square  her  sham  neo-Platonism  with  Chris- 
tianity, yet  must  hang  on,  somehow,  to  Christianity, 
that  she  may  be  able  to  work  miracles.  Therefore 
she  picks  all  the  pleasure  out  of  Christianity,  and 
leaves  all  the  pain;  and  offers  to  us  a  mere  burlesque 
of  the  Christian  Faith.  Here,  the  Passion  gives  her 
the  lie  direct :  and  she  gives  it  back.  Chapter  III. 
—  By  her  gross  doctrine  that  God  is  Life,  and  Life 
is  God,  which  she  cannot  reconcile  with  the  Christian 
Faith,  yet  cannot  afford  to  renounce  that  Faith, 
she  is  landed  in  this  absurdity,  that  she  leaves  all 
creatures  but  us  out  of  her  account  of  Creation. 
Chapter  IF,  —  She  denies  the  reality  of  injuries  and 
diseases,  affirming  that  they  are  errors  of  mortal  mind : 
whereas,  they  belong  to  life,  and  therefore  are  real. 
Also,  the  action  of  drugs  is  real,  because  it  is  a  re- 
lation between  two  objects,  and  all  relations  are 
real.  Chapter  V.  —  She  denies  the  reality  of  pain : 
whereas,  pain  is  an  act  of  life,  and  therefore  is  real. 
Also,  she  practically  ignores  the  difference  between 
pain  and  disease,  and  the  difference  between  "  func- 
tional" diseases  and  "organic"  diseases.  Chapter 
VI.  —  She  heals  many  "functional"  cases.  Chap- 
ter VII.  —  Her  testimonials  are  mostly  worthless. 
She  evades  investigation:    and  her  claim  that  she 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  225 

heals  "organic"  diseases  is  false.  It  would  be  dread- 
ful if  she  were  let  loose  in  a  hospital;  for  she  inflicts 
misery,  pain,  death,  on  a  vast  number  of  people. 
Chapter  Fill.  —  Judged  by  Common-sense,  she  is 
unscrupulous,  uncharitable,  cruel  to  small  children. 
She  has  this  merit,  that  she  preaches  Quietism;  but 
her  style  of  preaching  is  intolerable.  They  whom 
she  heals,  by  the  old  way,  the  use  of  suggestion,  are 
healed  not  by  her  but  by  themselves.  -- 

What  place  will  she  hold,  a  quarter  of  a  century 
hence,  in  London,  the  one  city  at  whose  mortal 
mind  I  can  make  a  guess  ?  Heaven  be  praised,  I 
believe  that  she  will  hold  none,  or  next  to  none: 
that  her  churches  will  be  given  to  the  nobler  pur- 
poses of  music,  with  lectures  twice  a  week  on  Mental 
Hygiene;  that  her  name  will  be  written,  her  story 
told,  not  in  lives,  but  in  books  of  reference,  thus: 
Christian  Science  {See  Science^  Christian), 


NOTES 

In  the  following  notes,  as  elsewhere,  S.  &  H.  indicates 
in  each  case  a  reference  to  Science  and  Health,  by  Mary 
Baker  G.  Eddy,  taken  from  an  edition  printed  in  1903, 
Joseph  Armstrong,  Boston.  Where  her  other  books  have 
been  quoted,  they  are  referred  to  by  name. 

I.    PHILOSOPHY  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

*  P.  7.   S.  &  H.,  p.  267. 
2  P.  7.   S.  &H.,  p.  112. 

'P.  8.  S.  &  H.,  p.  113;  see  also  Rudimental  Divine 
Science,  by  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  23d  ed.,  p.  11. 

'  P.  8.    S.  &  H.,  p.  468. 

^  P.  8.  S.  &  H.,  p.  90;  see  also  the  article  "Mind  is 
substance"  on  p.  90;  and  "Soul  I  denominated  substance, 
because  Soul  alone  is  truly  substantial."  Retrospection  and 
Introspection,  by  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  Armstrong,  Boston, 
1906,  p.  40. 

•  P.  8.    S.  &  H.,  p.  93. 

^  P.  10.    S.  &  H.,  p.  71. 

■  P.  10.  S.  &  H.,  p.  72;  see  also  the  article,  "Evil  nega- 
tive and  self-destructive,"  p.   186. 

'  P.  II.  S.  &  H.,  p.  286;  see  also  the  following  articles: 
"Sickness  as  only  thought,"  p.  208;  "Superiority  to  sick- 
ness and  sin,"  p.  231;  "The  supposed  necessity  for  sin, 
disease,  and  death,"  p.  253;  and  on  "Wickedness  is  not 
man,"  pp.  289  and  ff. 

227 


228  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

"P.  13.   S.  &H.,  p.  475. 

"P.  13.  S.  &  H.,  p.  476;  see  the  whole  answer  to  "What 
is  man?"  pp.  475-477- 

"  P.  14.    S.  &  H.,  p.  399. 

"P.  14.    S.  &H.,  p.  114. 

"P.  14.    S.  &H.,  p.  115. 

"  P.  15.    S.  &  H.,  p.  92. 

"P.  16.    S.  &H.,  p.  114. 

"  P.  16.  S.  &  H.,  p.  123;  see  also  "The  right  interpre- 
tation of  the  Universe,"  p.  124. 

"  P.  16.    S.  &  H.,  p.  293. 

"  P.  17.    S.   &  H.,  p.  274. 

^^  P.  18.  S.  &  H.,  p.  171;  see  also  the  following  para- 
graphs on  the  "fundamental  error"  of  "godless  evolution." 


''  p.  18. 

S. 

&  H.,  p.  189. 

^  p.  18. 

S. 

&  H.,  p,  423. 

-p.  19. 

See  Miscellaneous  Writings,  p.  286. 

^  p.  20. 

S. 

&  H.,  p.  69. 

^  P.  20. 

S. 

&  H.  (ed.  1875);   see  pp.   64,  65,   122 

Chapter  Vl 

[. 

^  P.  20. 

S. 

&  H.  (ed.  1881),  ii.  160. 

2^  P.  20. 

s. 

&  H.  (ed.  1888),  pp.  152,  162. 

2«  P.  20. 

s. 

&  H.  (ed.  1898),  pp.  33,  541. 

^»  P.  20. 

s. 

&  H.  (ed.  1903),  pp.  68,  69,  548. 

"  P.  22. 

s. 

&  H.,  p.  192. 

«^  P.  22. 

s. 

&  H.,  p.  74;  see  also  pp.  92,  185,  397. 

^  P.  23. 

s. 

&  H.,  p.  198,  199;  see  also  p.  160. 

"P.  23. 

s. 

&  H.,  p.  187. 

"  P.  23. 

s. 

&  H.,  p.  220. 

»«  P.  24. 

s. 

&  H.,  p.  246. 

"  P.  24. 

s. 

&  H.,  p.  194. 

OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE            225 

"P.  24. 

S.  &  H.,  p.  469. 

«« p.  25. 

S.  &  H.,  p.  489. 

"P.  25. 

S.  &  H.,  p.  78. 

«p.  26. 

S.  &  H.,  p.  492. 

«  p.  27. 

Retrospection  and  Introspection,  p.  36,  ed.  cited. 

«  p.  27. 

ih,,  p.  48. 

^P. 

30. 

^P. 

SO- 

«P. 

SO. 

^P. 

SO. 

'^P. 

SI- 

11.     THE   CHRISTIAN    FAITH   AND    CHRISTIAN 
SCIENCE 

S.  &  H.,  p.  256. 
S.  &  H.,  p.  134. 
S.  &  H.,  p.  23. 
S.  &  H.,  p.  29. 

S.  &  H.,  p.  315;  see  also  pp.  170,  312,  and 
Christian  Healing,  17th  ed.,  p.  4. 

"  P.  31.    S.  &  H.,  p.  27;  see  also  p.  47. 
^  P.  31.    S.  &  H.,  p.  75;  see  also  p.  329. 
«P.  31.    S.  &H.,  p.  44. 
»P.  31.    S.  &H.,  p.  55. 

^®  P.  32.  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  pp.  95,  96;  see 
also  ib.  p.  47  and  S.   &  H.,  (ed.  1898),  p.  557. 

"  P.  33.    From  Harvest,  by  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy;    see 
the  Literary  Digest,  Dec.  1906. 
''  P.  33.    S.  &  H.,  p.  334. 

"  P.  33.  See  S.  &  H.,  Chapter  I,  especially  pp.  7  and  15. 
This  contempt  for  "audible  prayer"  is  part  of  the  general 
contempt  which  Christian  Science  has  for  the  Christian 
Church.  See  S.  &  H.  (ed.  1898),  p.  316.  And  again,  S. 
&  H.,  p.  142,  and  so  on. 

"  P.  33.    S.    &  H.,  p.  12.     Christian  Healing,  pp.  5,  8. 


230  THE  FAITH  AND  WORKS 

*^  P.  34.    S.  &  H.,  p.  312;  see  also  pp.  12,  13. 

"  P.  34.    S.  &  H.,  p.  16. 

*^  P.  35.  See  the  four  pages,  S.  &  H.,  31-35,  for  her 
treatment  of  the  sacrament  and  the  "spiritual  Eucharist." 

"  P.  36.    Christian  Healing,  p.  9. 

^^  P.  36.  "Not  the  spear,  nor  the  material  cross  wrung 
from  his  faithful  lips  the  plaintive  cry:  Eloi,  Eloi,  lama 
sabachthani?  It  was  the  possible  loss  of  something  more 
important  than  human  life  which  moved  him,  —  the  possible 
misapprehension  of  the  sublimest  influence  of  his  career." 
—  S.   &H.,  p.  50. 

III.    LIFE  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

^  P.  41.    S.  &  H.,  p.  261. 

2  P.  41.    S.  &  H.,  p.  332. 

'  P.  46.  "The  Scripture  gave  no  direct  interpretation  of 
the  Scientific  basis  for  demonstrating  the  Spiritual  Principle 
of  Healing,  until  our  Heavenly  Father  saw  fit,  through 
the  Key  to  the  Scriptures,  in  Science  and  Health  to  unlock 
this  'mystery  of  Godliness.'" — Retrospection  and  Introspect 
tion,  p.  55,  ed.  cited. 

*  P.  46.    S.  &  H.,  p.  578. 

«  P.  47.    S.  &  H,  p.  579. 

•P.  47.    S.  &H.,  p.35. 

^P.  48.  See  S.  &  H.,  pp.  511,  512;  also  the  succeeding 
pages  including  the  description  of  the  quaHties  of  these 
thoughts  which  are  spiritual  realities.  (Moral  courage  is 
the  lion,  free  and  fearless;  diligence,  promptness,  and  per- 
severance are  like  "the  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills,"  which 
"carry  the  baggage  of  stern  resolve,"  and  so  on.) 


OF  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  231 

« P.  49.   S.  &  H.,  p.  514. 

"To  sense,  the  lion  of  to-day,  is  the  lion  of  six  thou- 
sand years  ago;  but  in  Science,  Spirit  sends  forth  its  own 
harmless  likeness." — Rudimental  Divine  Science,  by  Mrs. 
Eddy,  23d  ed.,  p.  17. 

IV.    THE  REALITY  OF  DISEASES 

*  P.  64.  See  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  by  Mary 
Baker  Eddy,  ed.  cited,  pp.  17-22,  also  p.  50. 

^  P.  65.    Retrospection  and  Introspection,  ed.  cited,  p.  104. 
'  P.  65.    Rudimental  Divine  Science,  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  ed. 
cited,  p.  221. 

*  P.  68.    S.  &  H.  (ed.  1906),  Chapter  VIII. 
^  P.  68.    S.  &  H.,  p.  174. 

•P.  68.  S.  &  H.,  pp.  382,  383  (ed.  1906);  see  also 
p.  197. 

^  P.  68.  S.  &  H.,  p.  161;  see  also  p.  198.  In  the  ed. 
of  1898,  see  p.  381. 

«  P.  69.    See  S.   &  H.,  pp.  157,  158. 

®  P.  70.  For  the  passage  from  which  quotations  are 
made  see  S.  &  H.,  pp.  401,  402.  See  also  pp.  161,  162  (in- 
cluding a  statement  of  the  kinds  of  cures  which  the  author 
of  Science  and  Health  claims  to  have  performed) ;  S.  &  H. 
(ed.  1898),  p.  476,  and  (ed.  1887)  p.  297;  also  the  book 
by  Lyman  Powell,  cited  above,  p.  172.  See  also  the  story 
of  a  little  girl,  who  having  wounded  her  finger  badly  seemed 
not  to  notice  it,  S.  &  H.,  p.  237,  and  the  paragraph  "acci- 
dents unknown  to  God,"  p.  424. 

*®  P.  70.  See  the  explanation  in  full,  quoted  by  Mr. 
Lyman  Powell,  in  the  book  cited  above  from  W.  H.  Mul- 


232  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

doon's  criticism  of  Christian  Science,  Brooklyn  Eagle 
Library,   1901. 

"  P.  70.  For  the  theory  of  Christian  Science  that  death 
is  an  "illusion,"  the  "consequent  of  an  antecedent  false 
assumption,"  see  S.   &  H.,  pp.  427,  428,  and  so  on. 

"  P.  72.     S.   &  H.,  p.  220. 

"  P.  72.  S.   &  H.,  p.  179. 

^*  P.  73.    S.  &  H.,  p.  413,  and  the  preceding  pages. 

^^  P.  74.  S.  &  H.,  pp.  374,  375.  For  further  illustra- 
tions of  the  theory  of  inflammation  in  Christian  Science, 
see  also  S.    &  H.,  pp.  175,  378,  385. 

"  P.  74.  For  Christian  Science  teaching  as  to  boils,  see 
S.  &  H.,  p.  153. 

"  P.  7S'    see  S.   &  H.,  pp.  412,  424,  425. 

"  P.  7S'    S.  &  H.,  pp.  153,  154. 

"P.  76.    S.&H.,  pp.  177,  178. 

'•  P.  77.    S.  &  H.,  p.  178. 

V.    THE  REALITY  OF  PAIN 

*P.  81.    S.  &H.,  p.  113. 

2  P.  83.    S.  &  H.,  p.  413. 

'  P.  83.    Miscellaneous  Writings,  pp.  300,  30 1. 

*  P.  86.  "My  first  discovery  in  the  student's  practice 
was  this.  If  he  silently  called  the  disease  by  name,  when 
he  argued  against  it,  as  a  general  rule  the  body  would  re- 
spond more  quickly  —  just  as  a  person  replies  more  readily 
when  his  name  is  spoken;  but  this  is  because  the  student 
is  not  perfectly  attuned  to  divine  Science  and  needs  the 
arguments  of  truth  for  reminders."  —  S.  &  H.,  p.  411. 

» P.  87.    S.  &  H.,  pp.  176,  177. 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

Confessio  Medici 

Clothj  I2m0f  $1.25  net 

"  A  number  of  exquisite  and  philosophical  essays  on  the  medical  art  in 
its  broadest  aspects,  apparently  pervaded  by  a  realization  of  what  the 
science  of  medicine  might  be  and  how  far  it  falls  short  of  its  ideals.  .  .  . 
These  essays  are  delightful  to  read.  They  are  wise  and  shrewd,  instinct 
with  a  knowledge  of  human  nature,  with  benevolence  and  with  a  humility 
that  recognizes  its  own  shortcomings  rather  than  its  own  attainments."  — 
Argonaut. 

"The  book  abounds  in  amiable  prejudices  stated  with  candour  and 
argued  with  ingenuity.  It  is  written  in  many  moods,  sentimental,  practi- 
cal, reflective  and  pugnacious,  and  in  a  style  that  is  brisk,  sententious, 
always  readable."  —  The  Bookman. 

"  To  the  few  but  exceedingly  precious  classics  of  literature  having  medi- 
cal men  as  their  authors  has  now  to  be  added  this  small  book  with  an 
alluring  title.  Unfortunately  the  book  is  anonymous,  but  its  author's  name 
should  be  in  the  select  list  which  includes  those  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne 
and  Dr.  John  Brown."  —  Boston  Herald. 

"  It  remains  only  to  say  as  emphatically  as  possible  that  every  one  who 
knows  the  intellectual  refreshment  of  clear,  unconventional  thought  ex- 
pressed with  insight  and  wit  will  give  this  anonymous  writer  a  cordial 
welcome."— r^^  Outlook. 

For  its  spirit  even  more  than  its  content ;  for 
its  wise  common  sense,  and  uncommon  wit ; 
it  is  a  rare  book  to  put  into  the  hands  of  any 
man  just  beginning  the  practice  of  a  profes- 
sion. A  doctor  cannot  afford  to  miss  it,  but 
one  need  not  be  a  doctor  to  enjoy  its  human, 
delightful  charm. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

publishes  a  very  large  number  of  books  containing  a  great 
variety  of  essays  covering  a  wide  range  of  subjects.  Among 
such  may  be  named  many  delightful  books  by  well-known 
authors. 

By  CARL  HILTY 

Professor  of  Constitutional  JLaw,  University  of  Bern,  Switzerland 

Happiness 

Translated  by  the  Rev.  Francis  G.  Peabody, 
Plummer  Professor  of  Christian  Morals  in  Harvard  University 

Cloth y  I2m0j  $1.25  net;  by  mailj  $1.35 

The  character  of  this  series  of  ethical  essays  is  indicated  by  the  follow- 
ing list  of  topics :  The  Art  of  Work,  How  to  Fight  the  Battles  of  Life, 
Good  Habits,  The  Children  of  This  World  Are  Wiser  Than  the  Children 
of  Light,  The  Art  of  Having  Time,  Happiness,  The  Meaning  of  Life. 

The  New  York  Times  voiced  the  sentiments  of  all  readers  in  the  fol- 
lowing comment :  "  The  author  makes  his  appeal,  not  to  discussion,  but 
to  life ;  .  .  .  that  which  draws  readers  to  the  Bern  professor  is  his  ca- 
pacity to  maintain,  in  the  midst  of  important  duties  of  public  service  and 
scientific  activity,  an  unusual  detachment  of  desire  and  an  interior  quiet- 
ness of  mind." 

The  Steps  of  Life 

Further  Essays  on  Happiness 

Translated  by  Melvin  Brandow,  with  an  Introduction 
by  Francis  G.  Peabody 

Clothj  i2mo,  $1.25  net;  by  mail^  $1-35 

Pirofessor  Hilty's  uplifting  Essays  long  ago  took  rank  in  Germany  as 
classics  in  their  sphere  —  that  of  personal  culture  in  ethics  and  religion ; 
and  have  had  an  enormous  sale  and  wide  distribution. 

The  reason  is  plain.  At  rare  intervals  a  man  will  appear  to  whom  it 
is  given  to  see  more  deeply  into  life  than  his  fellows.  Such  a  man  Carl 
Hilty  seems  to  be. 


By  FREDERIC   HARRISON 

The  Qioicc  of  Books 

In  Macmillan^s  Miniature  Series 
Cloth  J  gilt  top,  i6tno,  boxed,  $i.oo  net 

"Those  who  are  curious  as  to  what  they  should  read  in  the  region  of 
pure  literature  will  do  well  to  peruse  my  friend  Frederic  Harrison's  vol- 
ume called  'The  Choice  of  Books.'  You  will  find  there  as  much  wise 
thought,  eloquently  and  brilliantly  put,  as  in  any  volume  of  its  size."  — 
Mr.  John  Morley. 

The  Meaning  of  History  and 

Other  Historical  Essays 

Cloth,  crown  8vo,  $1.75 

"  Mr.  Harrison's  abilities  as  an  historical  writer  are  fully  recognized  by 
many  who  do  not  at  all  agree  with  the  philosophical  views  of  which  he  is 
so  earnest  an  advocate;  and  they  might  wish  that  he  had  given  us  more 
books  like  the  present.  There  are  no  better  specimens  of  popular  work, 
in  a  good  sense  of  the  word,  than  are  to  be  fourid  in  several  of  these 
pieces."  —  TAe  Academy,  London. 

Memories  and  Thoughts 

Cloth,  crown  8vo,  410  pp.,  gilt  top,  $2.00  net 

"The  personal  note  is  dominant  throughout  Mr.  Harrison's  book,  which 
leaves  us  with  a  sense  of  friendly  and  close  acquaintance  with  a  writer  in 
whom  seriousness  of  purpose,  firm  convictions,  broad  culture,  and  gen- 
erous sympathies  combine  with  the  thinker's  love  of  truth,  the  artist's  love 
of  beauty,  and  a  keen  zest  for  the  joys  of  living.  And  now  and  again,  in 
the  informality  of  his  manner,  he  gives  rein  to  a  whimsicality,  a  wilfulness, 
a  petulance,  or  an  extravagance  that  lend  to  his  style  a  pungent  tang  or  a 
pleasing  piquancy.  .  .  .  'Memories  and  Thoughts'  is  a  book  to  read  and 
read  again,  compact  of  good  matter  well  indited."  —  TAe  Outlook, 

"  It  is  not  too  high  praise  to  set  this  among  the  most  interesting  and  the 
most  valuable  books  of  the  last  decade.  It  is  of  course  written  in  exqui- 
site style  and  finish,  with  every  charm  of  literary  allusion  and  irradiated 
with  the  marvellous  wealth  of  knowledge  and  thought  of  the  author;  but 
it  is  something  more  and  better  than  this.  It  is  one  of  the  most  illuminat- 
ing commentaries  upon  the  life  and  thought  of  England  within  the  seventy 
years  it  covers  that  have  been  or  ever  will  be  published."  —  Columbia 
State. 


By  ARTHUR  TWINING  HADLEY 

President  of  Yale  University 

Standards  of  Public  Morality 

Cloth^  I2m0f  $1.00  net;  by  mail,  $i.io 

"Perhaps  the  most  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  incongruous  differ- 
ence between  American  standards  of  public  and  private  morality  yet  given 
in  popular  form  is  set  forth  in  the  first  essay."  —  New  York  Tribune. 

"  The  volume  is  all  the  better  for  its  exactly  aimed  point  and  concise- 
ness." —  Chicago  Tribune, 

By  HAMILTON   W.   MABIE 

Backgrounds  of  Literature 

"A  collection  of  papers  in  which  Wordsworth,  Emerson,  Irving,  Goethe, 
Blackmore,  Whitman,  Scott,  and  Hawthorne  are  treated  with  reference  to 
the  scenes  in  which  they  labored  and  by  which  they  were  influenced. 
There  is  some  illuminating  work  in  this  book,  sagacious  interpretation  of 
literary  personalities.  The  illustrations  are  half-tones  from  photographs 
of  landscape  and  architecture."  —  New  York  Tribune. 

Cloth,  J02  pp.,  Illus.,  in  a  box,  $2.00  net 
(postage  15c.) 

Parables  of  Life 

"  They  touch  with  a  loving  and  reverent  hand  the  inmost  experiences 
of  personal  life.  .  .  .  Poetic  in  conception,  vivid  and  true  in  imagery, 
delicately  clear  and  pure  in  diction,  these  little  pieces  belong  to  Mr. 
Mabie's  finest  and  strongest  work.  To  read  them  is  to  feel  one's  heart 
calmed,  uplifted,  and  enlarged."  —  Henry  van  Dyke. 

"  The  feeling  for  beauty  that  expresses  itself  in  simplicity,  a  philosophy 
of  life  wholesome  and  attainable,  the  buoyant  energy  and  steadfast  spirit- 
ual vision  that  illuminate  its  pages,  make  it  a  helpful  companion  for  a 
working  day  or  a  dull  day."  —  New  York  Times. 

New  Illustrated  Edition,  $  1.50  net 
(postage  8c.) 


PUBLISHED  BY 

THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

64-66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YOEK 


OVERDUE. 


LD21-l00m-7.'40  (6936s) 


YB  31003 


HH 


^.      •'*> 


